The next build is a lingerie chest for Lynndy. She's been asking for one for a while, one that will fit into an alcove in the bedroom. Ideas have been percolating ...
I had in mind a cabinet that tapers to each side. The drawers would have curved fronts. Need to make this a little more of a challenge - nothing like dovetailing curved, tapered half-blind dovetails ... :roll:
I made up a mock-up with a few lengths of MDF clamped together. This is what it looks like in the bedroom alcove (those pictures will be going).
This is 20" at the top, 25" at the bottom, and a height of 53" ...
The plan is for two narrow drawers at the top that will be used for jewellery and be filled with trays and lined in suede. Eight drawers in all, and these will become progressively larger as they move down the chest (or progressively slimmer as you move up the chest - it depends which way your eye roams :) )
The overall height then dropped to 51" to incorporate a hidden mirror into a swing-up lid. The lid will look like a moulding, and the hinges will be hidden at the rear. I would like to fit a secret catch that will also unlock the top drawer. The lid is planned to be a breadboard construction to minimise movement.
I drew the front elevation to scale with blue tape on thin MDF to represent the actual thickness of the carcass:
The sides look a little bland in this elevation, but visualise that they curve outward. The depth of the chest is 16 1/2". The lid adds another 1" at each end. This dimension enables the chest to fit neatly into the alcove in the bedroom. The last chests I made were 17" deep, so this seems to be a decent depth.
The side panels are expected to be 1/4" thick and be rebated into the curved side rails. The interior of the side panels will be reinforced by the side rails for the drawers.
From these elevations I began making templates ..
The design continued to evolve.
The timber will be Makore for the carcass and some nicely figured Jarrah for the drawer fronts. The Jarrah is a little darker, but the two woods have a similar red-brown tone that will work in harmony.
I dropped the height to 48 1/2" (from 51"). This was for two reasons. Firstly, Lynndy is 5'4" and the new height makes it easier to look into the top drawer. Secondly, she gave me hell for not making the top drawer slimmer (than the 4 1/2" it was) - it is intended for jewellery, and her idea was to make this thin. I tried several configurations, but they looked odd unless there was a progression of drawer heights. Eventually I came up with one she accepted. I also had to explain to her that the insides of the drawer was not as high as it appeared on the outside (overlapping drawer fronts and drawer bottoms taking up some of the apparent height)
The 8 drawers start at 3 3/4" (external height) and increase in 1/2" increments to 7 1/4" for the bottom drawer. There is a limit on the size of the lowest drawer. That 7 1/4" is as large as I can go with the wood I have. There is no way I will easily find wider boards, especially ones that match as the current two Jarrah boards I have do (they are, in fact, book matched boards). Consequently, any proportional change had an upper limit, and this created a lower limit as well - unless I wanted to add even more drawers. I like where it ended. It looks proportional to me, and the height is good (I stood Lynndy in front of the mock up, and she agreed - finally!)
To accommodate the lower height I changed the front thickness of the side rails from 35mm to 30mm (The side faces will be either 40 or 45mm wide). Overall the proportions look the same as before ...
I've been playing with dimensions and cutting out bits of MDF to get a feel for what the drawers will look like.
This is a very poor drawing, not exactly to scale and does not have the mouldings ...
What I discovered is that it is extremely complex to curve and taper drawers at the same time.
The problem is - based on a drawer front 1" thick - that the tapering sides does not permit a curve at the front that remains uniform. As the drawer shortens, so the ends thicken. In the end I decided to hold the curve constant, however then the drawer fronts cannot remain the same width at the dovetail ends.
To counter this, I decided to curve the inner faces of the drawer front. Now the issue is that, since the curves are constant, the plan widths differ. To deal with this, the inside curves will be shaped to match at the top, and then can taper to the original flat. It is either this or curve the entire inside - the issue then is that the lower side is intended to act as a stop against the drawer frames. Let me know if you have a different idea.
From the front, the drawers will be most curved at the bottom and least so at the top. In other words, the effect will be that the curve will flatten as it moves up the front of the drawers.
That is largely where the design is currently.
Regards from Perth
Derek
I had in mind a cabinet that tapers to each side. The drawers would have curved fronts. Need to make this a little more of a challenge - nothing like dovetailing curved, tapered half-blind dovetails ... :roll:
I made up a mock-up with a few lengths of MDF clamped together. This is what it looks like in the bedroom alcove (those pictures will be going).
This is 20" at the top, 25" at the bottom, and a height of 53" ...
The plan is for two narrow drawers at the top that will be used for jewellery and be filled with trays and lined in suede. Eight drawers in all, and these will become progressively larger as they move down the chest (or progressively slimmer as you move up the chest - it depends which way your eye roams :) )
The overall height then dropped to 51" to incorporate a hidden mirror into a swing-up lid. The lid will look like a moulding, and the hinges will be hidden at the rear. I would like to fit a secret catch that will also unlock the top drawer. The lid is planned to be a breadboard construction to minimise movement.
I drew the front elevation to scale with blue tape on thin MDF to represent the actual thickness of the carcass:
The sides look a little bland in this elevation, but visualise that they curve outward. The depth of the chest is 16 1/2". The lid adds another 1" at each end. This dimension enables the chest to fit neatly into the alcove in the bedroom. The last chests I made were 17" deep, so this seems to be a decent depth.
The side panels are expected to be 1/4" thick and be rebated into the curved side rails. The interior of the side panels will be reinforced by the side rails for the drawers.
From these elevations I began making templates ..
The design continued to evolve.
The timber will be Makore for the carcass and some nicely figured Jarrah for the drawer fronts. The Jarrah is a little darker, but the two woods have a similar red-brown tone that will work in harmony.
I dropped the height to 48 1/2" (from 51"). This was for two reasons. Firstly, Lynndy is 5'4" and the new height makes it easier to look into the top drawer. Secondly, she gave me hell for not making the top drawer slimmer (than the 4 1/2" it was) - it is intended for jewellery, and her idea was to make this thin. I tried several configurations, but they looked odd unless there was a progression of drawer heights. Eventually I came up with one she accepted. I also had to explain to her that the insides of the drawer was not as high as it appeared on the outside (overlapping drawer fronts and drawer bottoms taking up some of the apparent height)
The 8 drawers start at 3 3/4" (external height) and increase in 1/2" increments to 7 1/4" for the bottom drawer. There is a limit on the size of the lowest drawer. That 7 1/4" is as large as I can go with the wood I have. There is no way I will easily find wider boards, especially ones that match as the current two Jarrah boards I have do (they are, in fact, book matched boards). Consequently, any proportional change had an upper limit, and this created a lower limit as well - unless I wanted to add even more drawers. I like where it ended. It looks proportional to me, and the height is good (I stood Lynndy in front of the mock up, and she agreed - finally!)
To accommodate the lower height I changed the front thickness of the side rails from 35mm to 30mm (The side faces will be either 40 or 45mm wide). Overall the proportions look the same as before ...
I've been playing with dimensions and cutting out bits of MDF to get a feel for what the drawers will look like.
This is a very poor drawing, not exactly to scale and does not have the mouldings ...
What I discovered is that it is extremely complex to curve and taper drawers at the same time.
The problem is - based on a drawer front 1" thick - that the tapering sides does not permit a curve at the front that remains uniform. As the drawer shortens, so the ends thicken. In the end I decided to hold the curve constant, however then the drawer fronts cannot remain the same width at the dovetail ends.
To counter this, I decided to curve the inner faces of the drawer front. Now the issue is that, since the curves are constant, the plan widths differ. To deal with this, the inside curves will be shaped to match at the top, and then can taper to the original flat. It is either this or curve the entire inside - the issue then is that the lower side is intended to act as a stop against the drawer frames. Let me know if you have a different idea.
From the front, the drawers will be most curved at the bottom and least so at the top. In other words, the effect will be that the curve will flatten as it moves up the front of the drawers.
That is largely where the design is currently.
Regards from Perth
Derek
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