Heidi Earnshaw’s white oak seven-drawer dresser is based directly on the 18th-century French semainier form, which had one drawer for each day of the week. The resemblance might be elusive if you trace back to the Rococo originals, which were often drenched in curves and carving, ormolu and inlay (and would no doubt have had sides and a back). But Earnshaw, a Toronto native whose early education in furniture came through pulling apart curb castoffs to see how they were made, regularly looks to historical furniture for inspiration. Her own style is decidedly clean and minimalist, but she can see through the decorative skin of period pieces to the forms beneath. Earnshaw loves the technical aspect of furniture making—one of her favorite parts of this piece is the diagonal brace in the back—and she especially relishes making chests: cutting clean joints and fitting together scores of parts into handsome drawers and a strong, light structure; her dresser exposes all of that. “I feel a huge debt,” she says, “to all the woodworkers who have gone before me, in terms of how things were designed but also how they were made.”

Photos: Ryan Nangreaves

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