Arts and Crafts Style Dresser

• The sides will be made from walnut plywood and will sit in grooves.
• Although Stickley is traditionally constructed from cherry or quarter sawn white oak, my dresser will be made from walnut.

• More CAD renderings.  These are very important in helping to visualize the finished product.
• The renderings help to see any potential design problems.

• 5/28/07.  Dry fit of carcass (no glue yet).  After laying out for the mortises (w/ pencil!), I realized that I didn't like the drawer layout.  I removed one of the skinny pair of drawers from the top.
• Next I will glue up the front and back sub-assemblies.

• CAD drawing of new design with modified drawer layout.  I think it looks much better with one less row of drawers.  It enabled me to make the top two rows of drawers wider.  The bottom three are now the same width.  The legs are 1 3/4" square.

• 5/30/07  Glue-up of carcass.  Next I need to work on the top and drawers.

• 6/30/07.  Finally got around to making some drawers.  I batch cut all the pieces for the bottom three large drawers and assembled one already. 
• This is my FIRST dovetail for a project!!  Because the sides of the drawers are lower than the drawer front, the dovetails are asymmetric from the left to right side.  I had to set up both sides of the jig (Leigh D4R) so that they were mirror images of each other.
• Drawer sides are maple and are 1/2" shorter than the front.
• Only six more drawers to go.

• 7/6/07.  All of the drawers are finished with Minwax "Tung Oil Finish".  (Only top four drawers shown in this picture.)
• Next I need to work on the drawer runners and top.

• 7/7/07.  Starting to look like a dresser.  Only one coat of finish at this point.  Two-three more to go.
• Still need to work on the top (after another run to the lumber yard!).
• Here are the pulls I am going with (at $25 a pop!  Ouch!).

• 7/10/07.  Five-coats of Minwax's "Tung Oil Finish".
• All I need are the pulls to arrive and make the top!
• So far I am very pleased with the way this project has turned out.  I was a little worried about a consistent gap all the way around the drawers, but I think I did just fine.
• The grain in the smaller drawers flows from one drawer into the next because they were cut from the same board.  This is a feature that is most often ONLY seen in custom made furniture.  This type of detail is difficult to obtain with mass-produced furniture.

• 7/15/07.  All woodworking is complete and the hardware (drawer pulls) have been installed.  I need a few more coats of finish on the top and all I need to do is install it.

• 7/16/07.  Finally finished and delivered to one happy customer (me)!!
• Another one for the kids to fight over!