This Walnut Dresser is to celebrate a new grand baby, to use as a changing table surface, and to serve as a child’s dresser for many years to come. It is 35 inches tall, 36 inches wide and 19 inches deep at the top surface. The style trends towards mid-century modern by using heavily beveled carcass sides and sub-top, all framing the more mildly beveled drawer fronts. The cast brass cup pulls are un-lacquered and should develop a mild patina in short order as the dresser is used and exposed to east coast humidity.

Construction follows classic dresser strategy with a walnut fronted base and sub top dovetailed to the full solid walnut side panels. The thick top, drawer fronts and plinth base are also solid walnut parts. Drawers have maple sides that ride on maple runners and kickers that form the interior portions of the drawer divider frames. The divider frames are mounted within dados using the front-edge-only glue approach for allowing moisture induced expansion. Non-wear interior components are made from poplar with the exceptions of the drawer bottoms and back panel which utilize Baltic birch.

For the inset drawer construction I decided to divert from the standard half blind dovetail joinery to use a (dowel) pinned and locked rabbet joint. It looks great and feels very solid, hopefully it will hold up as well as the dovetail approach…we’ll see.

The finishing process utilized grain filler, a dark walnut stain, and wipe on polyurethane topcoat.

Launch Gallery