Cypress in Furniture

[wnaziri]

I would like to get input from the community on an issue.

 

I recently purchased 80 bf of 4/4 cypress at an auction.  It is beautiful, plain sawn cypress.

 

I am currently in the middle of completing a chest of drawers, using air-dried walnut.  The piece has two drawers on the bottom with three enclosed shelves on the top half.  I had planned to use popler or maple for the secondary wood / drawer sides for contrast.

 

Now that I have seen my new cypress lumber, I would like to use it for the drawer sides.  I realize that cypress is pretty soft but rather stable.

 

Question: any reservations / issues with use of cypress for indoor furniture?

 

Thanks, in advance.

 

WN

[wdwerker]

Soft and it works fairly well outdoors. I would use maple or poplar for drawer sides, save the cypress for outdoor projects

[Barron]

It is great for outdoor projects, but should work just fine for drawer sides.

[wnaziri]

Thank you for the responses.

 

I agree that cypress is best suited for outdoor furniture.  However, I have not been inspired to make any outdoor pieces thus far.

 

I will try to build at least one of the drawers with the cypress and see how it goes.  I will post pics when I get it done.

[CessnaPilotBarry]

It's not great looking for furniture, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it where I'd use pine.  I have some shop furniture made in cypress.  It looks kind of like doug fir when finished.

 

Be aware that when thinking outdoors, there is cypress, and there is CYPRESS!   I've had cypress fail miserably in New England outdoor conditions.  From what I understand, old growth cypress is excellent outdoors, newer stuff is not.   I can only assume what I bought was not old growth cypress, which is why it fell apart like home center pine when exposed to the weather.