Arts and Crafts Sideboard


Chet

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I am getting ready to start my next project.  An Arts and Craft style sideboard.  I am basing it off of a Gregory Paolini project that was in Fine Woodworking a few years back.  

The one he built was 46 inches long and I want to make mine closer to 60 inches, with two doors on each side instead of the one that his had.  I have a question with the over all design.  Taking into account the style of the piece and the added length and before I sketch anything out, I am inclined to add four more legs, two front and back on each side of the drawer section.

What do you think and why.

This is the one from fine woodworking.

011247024_arts-and-crafts-sideboard-main.jpg.e808bab1d642e5cae35c6a28d406dd00.jpg

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Just my 2 worth, I don't think you need the added legs.  With the aprons, I don't think you'll have any issues with sag.  If you're really concerned, you could add a center support that would never be seen.

Looking forward to watching this build Chet!

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3 minutes ago, ..Kev said:

Just my 2 worth

Thats what I want.  I am looking for discussion. ;)

Speaking of the aprons, in the plans as it is they are 2 1/2 inches, for my design would you be inclined for any reason to maybe go to 3 inches?

 

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2 minutes ago, Chet said:

Thats what I want.  I am looking for discussion. ;)

Speaking of the aprons, in the plans as it is they are 2 1/2 inches, for my design would you be inclined for any reason to maybe go to 3 inches?

 

You could.. Easy to justify with the extra width but, I'd bet you don't really "need" the extra.  You could also consider an arch in them..  Of course that's a design decision of personal choice but, if I were doing the piece, I could at least look at a drawing with that detail to see if I liked it.

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Given the piece I agree that extra legs are probably not necessary...having said that I don't think they would look out of place either. If I did add legs I would have them come down under the inside of each door so the drawers looked to be centered between them. I look forward to following along I have a wine bar sketched out based on this design that I have been toying around with, on paper at least. 

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I agree with the above comments on the 2 or 4 legs. I don't think it's necessary. 

This first photo looks to be about the same dimensions, maybe slightly shorter than what you'll wind up with and has the same arrangement of doors and drawers. Note the arch on the bottom.

screenshot.jpg.8bdc2682c813b91a06a6e95ab446a145.jpg

This one is a little shorter but still longer than the Paolini plan with no bottom shelf on stretcher.

screenshot.jpg.0d234adce008d1e6d04121e43f21d3bd.jpg

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Strength wise 2 legs and 2 1/2" aprons is more that you probably need.

Aesthetics wise i like the 2 legs. The added apron thickness could help but it could also work against you. Increasing the length is going to thin the look of the apron out some but making it thicker is going to lose you vertical visual impacts. Going too much might make this look more like a dresser.

I'd be willing to bet money the height of the table is around 32" with the bottom of the cabinet being roughly in the middle of 16" from the floor. I'd make the doors 15" x 9" and the drawers would take up the remaining space minus the divider thickness. Shelf would be around 3" off the floor. A 3" apron looks awkward. 2.75" looks better but still is a bit thick i think the 2.5" is a good choice. I did a quick cad sketch.

To make the bottom shelf more rigid but to keep the appearance I'd run a brace or 2 under neath in the middle that would be no greater in thickness than the shelf support running between the 2 legs could hide.

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I hope you journal this one Chet as i have the exact same one in a folder on the desk top of things i want to build when i've got nothing else to do:blink: and i think your idea of making it longer with four doors is a good choice. are you going to use QSWO for the material?

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2 hours ago, wdwerker said:

I read that the wholesale prices on white oak are shooting up close to walnut. I've got no idea how soon that will trickle down to local yards. 

When I built my media cabinet late last year out of QSWO it was creeping towards $7 a board foot, but some of that maybe my location in the country. :o

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15 hours ago, Chet said:

Thanks Mick.

Where did the top one come from?  I could be interested in reading more about the design, not so much the "looks" of it but dimensions and such.

The website just has basic dimensions, mostly photos of the students' projects. Some cool stuff here, though. 

https://www.watersandacland.co.uk/furniture/portfolio/handmade-cabinets/partington-sideboard/

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20 hours ago, wdwerker said:

I read that the wholesale prices on white oak are shooting up close to walnut. I've got no idea how soon that will trickle down to local yards. 

I recently (maybe 8 weeks ago) paid essentially equivalent prices for 6/4 walnut as I did 8/4 QSWO at a local hardwood store... it was $8.50-9 for each. I don't have any problem finding regular (non-QS) white oak at $4-4.50 ish per BF, but QSWO is double that price at all of my suppliers.

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I finally took a tape measure to things and started some serious thoughts as to how I wanted to go about this. It is interesting how shapes can lead you to see things that aren't really there. This piece pictured above has an over all dimension of 39 inches to the top of the flat surface and is 50 inches at its widest. The actual storage area of the two doors and drawers is 18inches X 46 inches.

The big ugly outdated china cabinet that this is going to replace is at its widest 52 inches and is about 6 ft 6 inches tall. The whole upper half is basically a hutch to display things, no real storage. The bottom where the storage exists is 43 inches wide and 20 inches tall, so just not that big of a difference. It looks like a monster but has no more useful then the Arts and Crafts sideboard. I have some ideas that will make the space in the sideboard more productive then what we presently have.

This is a long way around saying that I am going to stick to the original dimensions of Paolini's piece.

Thanks to everyone that chimed in.

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The more legs you have, the harder it will be to sit perfectly almost anywhere, and the more complicated it would make it to size all the other parts.

Decide on hardware first too.   It might change the overall proportions of the design.  The drawer pulls in the first picture in this thread look too large, out of proportion to the piece overall.   Also, the stiles and rails for the doors in the second picture in Mick's post with pictures look too wide to me too.  Every part needs to work with every other part.

I didn't step anything off with dividers.  My opinions are just to my eye.

edited to add:   I like this one better, but the top is obviously designed to have stuff sitting on it, and the back board just for a background.   I like the graduated drawer heights better too, but these are just my opinion.

https://www.stickley.com/OurProducts_Details.cfm?id=1256&q=buffets&view=all&view=complex&finish=&Collection=

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  • 4 months later...
On 6/10/2018 at 4:20 PM, Tom King said:

Decide on hardware first too.   It might change the overall proportions of the design.  The drawer pulls in the first picture in this thread look too large, out of proportion to the piece overall.   Also, the stiles and rails for the doors in the second picture in Mick's post with pictures look too wide to me too.  Every part needs to work with every other part.

 

Agreed, hardware on a piece like this is likely a significant design consideration. The first sideboard, IMHO, would look better if they just used one pull per drawer.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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