Guest Bedroom Dresser

[gee-dub]

As usual I am using a thread to force me to stay on track and moving forward. Back in November of 2023 I made these side tables for the guest bedroom.

My challenge now is to make a 7-drawer dresser to go with them. This will replace some Wal-Mart dressers I have been dragging around since before the dot.com explosion. I could be wrong but I though it might be interesting to see where I start and how things morph, evolve and eventually end up. Here is my first draft over coffee this morning.

The legs will be tapered like the side tables and there will be frame and panel work on the ends. They will be primarily walnut with some curly maple accents. I do not want to go with curly maple for the drawer fronts as there is just too much real estate for that big of a splash. If you have ever seen a hallway table made out of 100% zebrawood you may know of what I speak. I am thinking curly maple pulls at this point but we will see where the coffee leads me. Different strokes, and I love me some figured and exotic wood. I also like habanero peppers but . . . too much is too much

We'll take the trip together and see what happens. Stay safe and enjoy your shop time.

[fcschoenthal]

Looking forward to this and seeing where you take it. I can't imagine that you'll have only the pulls in maple. That's not really enough area for the curl to show. Maybe the side panels or rails? I've sure it will be gorgeous where ever. 

[gee-dub]

I've been playing with the look of the outside top drawer fronts in curly maple with dark pulls and dark fronts with curly pulls for the balance.

[gee-dub]

I think I am closing in. I had to adjust the height since the guest bedroom windows are not at the same height as the new master windows that I used as a model. I figured out this was due to the new master windows having a different trim dimension so the height was adjusted to make things look right from the street. We have plantation shutters and they swing inward when you want to clean or open the windows so that becomes the driving factor for furniture height in front of those windows. Wow, that was way too much information . . .


Be that as it may . . . The legs are tapered from the outside, the pull appearance is approximate, and the false fronts will have a profile similar to the nightstands, not squared off as shown. I try to wait till I am really comfy before profiling certain things in SketchUp because if you want to tweak dimensions, curves and round overs can be problematic. I believe I have enough dimensional data to start picking out material and making parts. Let the madness begin 

[roughsawn]

What dimension will the legs be at the top?

And what will they taper down to at the bottom?

I'm assuming that only the outside will be tapered?

3/4" thick top?

[gee-dub]

1-5/8" square blank.  Tapered starting 4-1/2" from the top (midpoint of the top drawer row line) to 1-1/4" x 1-5/8" at the bottom.  Outside only to simplify overlay drawer face positions, top is 7/8".  I did increase the side overhangs to better mimic the nitestands.

[fcschoenthal]

I noticed that you changed to a split panel on the ends. Looks a lot better to me than that deep of a blank recess.

[fcschoenthal]

On 5/22/2026 at 9:36 AM, gee-dub said:

I've been playing with the look of the outside top drawer fronts in curly maple with dark pulls and dark fronts with curly pulls for the balance.

That would tie them in. Maybe the interior of the side panels in maple and the bottom trim that matches the side tables.

[gee-dub]

On 5/22/2026 at 5:27 PM, fcschoenthal said:

That would tie them in. Maybe the interior of the side panels in maple and the bottom trim that matches the side tables.

Yep, already built in.  It just doesn't show in the B&W line drawings.

[gee-dub]

On 5/22/2026 at 5:22 PM, fcschoenthal said:

I noticed that you changed to a split panel on the ends. Looks a lot better to me than that deep of a blank recess.

Good eye.  I was originally planning on going with an internal plywood cabinet structure but realized that with the appropriate frame and panel component locations I could skip that.  It also let me move the front to back side rails towards the center and increase the taper on the legs.

I normally don't start posting until I have percolated through a lot of these things.  I thought it might be fun to go through the whole "wait, what if I did this?" process.  I think it is important that people realize a lot of these designs don't emerge whole and complete.  There is a lot of hammering about and sometimes complete re-thinking before I get to the end product.

I am not one of those gifted artists who grab a piece of paper and draw exactly what they are after.  My SketchUp drawings routinely go through 6 to 12 iterations before I get what I am after .  It's all part of the journey and all part of the fun.

[Mark J]

12 hours ago, gee-dub said:

these designs don't emerge whole and complete.  There is a lot of hammering about and sometimes complete re-thinking before I get to the end product.

Same here.  Small as they are, I spend weeks working through designs for my turned pieces, and then more time making sure the design is feasible. 

12 hours ago, gee-dub said:

I am not one of those gifted artists who grab a piece of paper and draw exactly what they are after. 

Me neither.

[wtnhighlander]

The results both of you achieve are proof that the process is worth the effort!

[gee-dub]

Sorry guys. Lazy day today. One of my favorite parts of a project; material selection.

I chalk out parts and work on material appearance matching.



I have been waiting to use this material on something and finally think I have found a place for it.

The figure is not perfectly symmetric of course so I split it at the bandsaw along appearance versus dimensional lines.

I stop to swap out the Woodslicer. I keep this narrow kerf blade for exotics where I do not want to lose a lot of material to the saw kerf. I sometimes get lazy and leave it in place which wears it out prematurely.

I finally stopped for the few minutes it takes to swap back to the Resaw King.

I will mill out the side frame and panel parts first.

To be continued . . .

[fcschoenthal]

@gee-dub interesting sticker you've got inside your bandsaw. A little out of place unless you've got a router or switch down there.

[gee-dub]

On 5/23/2026 at 9:11 PM, fcschoenthal said:

@gee-dub interesting sticker you've got inside your bandsaw. A little out of place unless you've got a router or switch down there.

Ha-ha-ha.  That's a piece of magnetic sheet that used to ship with some switches we ordered by the hundreds back in the day.  I gathered a grip of them and have since used them to quiet sheet metal sides on machinery or to cover unused dust ports on machines.  They have come in quite handy over the years.  I also have a bazillion little stick-on rubber feet that have been used for many things over the years since the dot.com crash.

[curlyoak]

On 5/21/2026 at 3:45 PM, gee-dub said:

do not want to go with curly maple for the drawer fronts as there is just too much real estate for that big of a splash.

I love figured wood! Too much appears gaudy to me. 

Is the new picture you in your youth? How old?

[gee-dub]

Old passport photo at 18 that I came across.  Gave me a laugh.

[gee-dub]

Kind of limping along here. It's a bit after 7am so I am gonna grab some breakfast. I did get the raised panels for the sides milled to rough dimension.

I am taking a little longer than normal because I want to try to milk some parts out of these old off cuts from previous projects.

This is pretty much a utility piece for the guest bedroom but I want to do as well as I can while using up some leftover stock.
When you resaw you sometimes find wonderful surprises and sometimes not.

I got a couple of voids in the stock. I will try to use the taper to eliminate them but, just in case I cut a couple of extra blanks.  In the past I have also placed these voids at the rear and filled them with epoxy.  We'll see how it goes.

[gee-dub]

Still bumbling forward. Book-matched panels for the sides.

I already showed the leg blanks. Sorry about that.

Here is where my planer sled lives in one of the out buildings.

I give the bottom a clean off and a re-wax. The bottom drawers call for false front of 8-1/4" and my jointer is only an 8".

So I have a decent amount of blanks broken down and milled.

Apparently I am the only person who knows where the grocery store is so I have to go pick up some last minute items for tomorrow before I get to eat lunch

[gee-dub]

Much of the reason I post all this blathering is to keep me moving on. Mission accomplished. Is it weird to get some twisted pleasure from how much spoil your cyclone removes from the air stream?

And it leaves your filter box this clean???

Be that as it may . . . . The usual cutting of rail blanks to length.


Same for the stiles.







I tend to over-mark parts.

Grooves for everybody in this assembly.

Tomorrow may be hit and miss depending on when guests arrive.

[gee-dub]

Time for Dominoes.

When I am looking for center on anything I tend to measure from both ends to be sure I am right on target.

Tinker Toys . . . whenever I am doing Domino joinery I can't help it; I think of Tinker Toys.



Moving on to raised panels.

[fcschoenthal]

On 5/25/2026 at 9:14 AM, gee-dub said:

Time for Dominoes.

@gee-dub I think we've talked about it before, but how do you like the Veritas table? Do you have the extra shim sets? I've been thinking about making one from the plans of the originator (who sold it to Veritas), but it's not on a priority list. With it now at $370 and the shim set at $100, to may be worth it. I like some of the features that Woodpecker has on theirs, but normal price of $700 is a lot more than I'm willing to spend for something I'd use only a handful of times a year.

[gee-dub]

On 5/25/2026 at 8:32 AM, fcschoenthal said:

@gee-dub I think we've talked about it before, but how do you like the Veritas table? Do you have the extra shim sets? I've been thinking about making one from the plans of the originator (who sold it to Veritas), but it's not on a priority list. With it now at $370 and the shim set at $100, to may be worth it. I like some of the features that Woodpecker has on theirs, but normal price of $700 is a lot more than I'm willing to spend for something I'd use only a handful of times a year.

Yikes!  They have certainly gotten proud of that thing since I bought it.  Adjusting for the costs of things at this point in time I would still say it is worth it.  My accuracy and consistency go way up on repeat operations as opposed to free hand or stop blocks.

I always hate to sound like I am on QVC and pushing products but, there are some things where one or the other of us has had some time with it and can report candidly.  This seemly costly little guy saves me a ton of time.  At 40 I probably wouldn't have cared. Since watching 70 in my rear-view my time has become more valuable.  I've got a half a dozen more major pieces I want to make before I start setting out on the porch and yelling at the kids to "get outta my yard!".

I built this fixture back in 2013. It serves as a tall router fence for things like drawer-lock joinery.

It also has a face board with abrasive attached and a curved caul that lets me do raised panel cuts.

These are right off the machine and will require some hand plane love but,

the jig does save time when folks are coming over for Memorial Day and I still need to go pick up the cake!!!

[gee-dub]

A little hand plane work and the raised panels are ready.

Starting the glue up.

More glue up stuff.

Lee Valley has gotten pretty proud of their bar gauge heads but, even still they seem worth it.

I have made a variety of "sticks" for them and they are quick to change as required. If they are too rich for your blood some stair gauges and some scrap will work as well as shown n the lower left.

I use the gauges to confirm square like so.



And here is one side done.

Another side part way there.

Odd use of setup bars to assure things are square.

I should be able to finish this side today and get on with the legs tomorrow.

[Von]

On 5/26/2026 at 3:21 PM, gee-dub said:

Lee Valley has gotten pretty proud of their bar gauge heads but, even still they seem worth it.

I have made a variety of "sticks" for them and they are quick to change as required. If they are too rich for your blood some stair gauges and some scrap will work as well as shown n the lower left.

I like how you added some dowel stubs pointing down, I assume to helps with some inside corner situations.