Walnut and Ebony Crib
I took several styles I like ( Greene & Greene, Shaker and Mission/Arts & Crafts), put them in a blender and made this crib completely out of walnut except the numerous faceted ebony pegs.
The back of the crib is a solid panel with back panel raised (see pic #2) in the shaker style. the arches on the bottom and back panel top are Mission furniture inspired and the obvious ebony peg inspiration is from the Greene’s.
I did not want any hardware to show when this crib was in the raised position and I used what is essentially a folding table design (see pic #3) for the bottom. Each side also can come apart via bed hardware for movement and storage. I appreciate the “prisoner” configuration as I hear about all children eventually climbing out, but that will be a long time coming as it is roughly 40 inches to the mattress when the bottom is dropped into the set of cleats surrounding the bottom.
The future toddler bed configuration (pic#4) uses ebony covers with inset brass screws and inserts to cover the exposed hardware on the top. The large faceted ebony faceplates blend the ebony motif into the transformation. I like the fact that it is also pretty low to the ground in this configuration as if he rolls out it won’t be too traumatic, though there is a slight lip on the front even with the mattress in to help prevent this.
Each square peg was hammered into a round hole and I later faceted each end with a chisel. The wood joinery is all mortise and tenon. I used van dyck crystals to dye the less desirable walnut bottom of the crib and everything else finished with amber shellac and nontoxic wax.
The final pic shows the crib in action and you can see part of the hardware alphabet frames I made that cover most of that wall.
Comments
Great looking bed! Are the spindles mortised in to the rail?
nevermind you already stated that :)
Amazing work. My wife and I are expecting our next child this summer and as we gave away our store bought crib to some friends in need she suggested that I build a crib for this one. We were scouring the net and this site and she fell in love with your design, Did you happen to draw up some plans and is there any chance that you still have them? Any help would be appreciated as if I were to try and recreate it from the pics you have here I am sure it would not come out as well. Thanks and hope to hear back from you.
Sorry jeremed I don't check the site as often as I should and saw your comment. I sketched ideas and such on paper but made no formal type plans.
I think fine woodworking or wood magazine had an article I read that outlining the specifics in relation to what the spacing between rails, etc for safety and I followed those to extreme.
However be mindful this design was for parents that are 6 foot tall and when I dropped the bottom into the prison configuration it was 40+ inches to grab that baby...needless to say he never escaped like many commercial crib stories!
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