Daughter's night stand/cabinet

[Art]

So I built my daughter a small apothecary cabinet that she will use as a nightstand.  This was my first real furniture project, and it was my first attempt at hand cut dovetails.  The case and drawers were all dovetailed.  Each drawer had halfblind dovetails at the front and through dovetails at the back.  Each one took me about an hour and there were 9 total.  The main case is cherry and the drawer fronts are birdseye maple.  I made many mistakes in this build, but I learned a lot.  The drawers in particular were a lot of work, and although they aren't perfect by any means, I'm quite proud of them. 

But... when I put them in the case in her room, she immediately declared she prefers the cabinet without drawers.  Essentially she likes the cubby holes without drawers   

So now I have 9 spare drawers with no cabinet...

[wtnhighlander]

So, build another cabinet around the drawers! No sense in letting all that effort go to waste.

[Art]

This is the cabinet with a couple of the drawers in it:

Secret compartment (one of two in it):

Current location of the drawers:

 

Yeah, I think I'll just build myself another one...

[Art]

BTW, the drawers aren't finished.  They still need finish prep and finish, and brass screws for the pulls.  Also, the keen eyes out there may notice that I screwed up and should have put a half tail at the bottom of the drawer fronts to hide the drawer bottom.

[mat60]

 

Nice work Art. I bet you have some time in it.  I agree with building another. Best of all she is happy.

[Ronn W]

First project??  Very nicely done!  You don't say how old she is but there may be chance that she will change her mind.  I would keep the drawers for her.

[Minnesota Steve]

That's pretty cool.

 

[Art]

Thanks for kind comments.  I started this project mainly to practice/learn new skills.  After starting it occurred to me that I didn't have a place to put the finished piece, so I suggested to her she could use it as a nightstand (she's 10), so that became the plan.  So it was never really designed for that purpose. 

Now that she's had it in her room and used it for few days, she now knows what she wants, so I'm going to actually build her what she wants.  Essentially she wants a small cabinet without drawers but with wide but short cubby holes that she can put her books in.   She usually has about half a dozen books she's reading at any given time, so this way each one will have it's own cubby hole.  She has requested secret compartments again as well.

The existing one will likely be given to her friend who saw it today and loved it.

[lewisc]

I like a good secret compartment. Looks like a nice little table.

[Chestnut]

Dude this is awesome! it's sand about the drawers but you nailed it. I'd make another one and maybe try some new techniques like dovetail the dividers in or something.

[Art]

6 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Dude this is awesome! it's sand about the drawers but you nailed it. I'd make another one and maybe try some new techniques like dovetail the dividers in or something.

That's exactly what I was thinking.  Sliding dovetails are something I've been wanting to try anyway.

[Chestnut]

59 minutes ago, Art said:

That's exactly what I was thinking.  Sliding dovetails are something I've been wanting to try anyway.

Yeah i have as well. I have a project that i'd like to do soon that i want to tie some sliding dovetails into.