Woodworker: Greg Klassen

When Klassen builds a new case piece, he’ll usually begin with a drawing to rough out the shape he’s after. But many of the important details of the design emerge in a full-scale mockup. “Building a full-size mockup,” he says, “is a great way to find confidence in your design before you cut that first board.” For this sideboard (16 in. deep by 48 in. wide by 35 in. tall) with its poised stance and superb proportions, he built the mockup out of cardboard. He didn’t bother mocking up the base separately, he just created a box the size of the whole cabinet and drew the base on it with a pencil. The mockup let him experience the piece in three dimensions-and alter it with a snip of the scissors. Once he had a shape that felt right, he used the front of the mockup as a canvas to find a pleasing arrangement for the doors and drawers. He used double-stick tape to fix thin strips of wood to the front to represent the edges of the carcase and the door and drawer dividers. He tried various widths and moved the strips a number of times before arriving at the tranquil composition reflected in the finished piece. To finalize the base design, he cut shapes out of veneer and taped them to the mockup.

Klassen sawed his own afzelia veneers for the case, choosing calm grain to complement the gentle curves of the piece. He also carved the afzelia pulls to a softly flared shape that links them to the curve of the mahogany base and the slightly bowed front of the cabinet.