Valet stand


stevem4

Recommended Posts

A friend of mine asked me to make him a gentlemans valet stand to hang his suit on at the end of the day, and with no other design brief this is what i came up with.

Its made mainly from european oak with american black walnut details, maple drawer sides and cedar drawer bottom. Its my first go at laminating (trouser rail arms and curved feet..) and template routing (main uprights).

I'm pretty new to woodworking and very new to design. so although i'm fairly happy with this stand i'd like to make another for myself and try and refine the design. Any comments would be welcome... hopefully your observations and advice will help me sort out the niggles i have with it. The feet for example...

Cheers!

Stevepost-550-099411500 1282849990_thumb.jpgpost-550-041107100 1282849964_thumb.jpgpost-550-090352900 1282849932_thumb.jpgpost-550-033467400 1282850011_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a very impressive piece! I like the design and choice of wood.

The top is a little boxy for my taste. I'd make some changes there to give it some fluidity and motion. maybe make the drawer with some curves, like a band-saw box. I'd also add a lip around the top so that coins and cuff-links don't slide off. I'd use a router bit to make the lip curved, so that there's a continuous curve up the side, over the lip, and down onto the shelf. I might also extend the upright past the drawer and add another, smaller shelf above the drawer. I think that would give the piece a less abrupt ending. Maybe even two more shelves to give it a nice tapered look on top.

Just some ideas off the top of my head.

Great design and execution!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Big +1, more if I could!!

I love it Steve! This is what excites me. Your piece has movement. IMHO, your design has moved from a mere piece of furniture into the "studio art" realm. Although, I understand what Chip is getting at, I would be careful not to over design. I'm assuming the top is actually flat, although one of the shots give the illusion that it is not. The fluidity of the piece is very nice. As for your question on the feet, I personally would play with making the foot/base stylistically like that of a bird's foot. The piece seems to be reminiscent of a Crane, Egret, or Blue Heron type of bird to me already, so I would tend to explore that. Really, really well done!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies guys... Chip, I agree with you about the box, and the lip and maybe a shelf are things I'd like to incorporate in the next version, I had a problem designing it that way without making it appear top heavy tho...got to be really careful with that. Like vic says, I don't want to over design it...but I do want it to be as useful as possible. And vic, thanks for your encouragement and I love your idea about the feet, reckon Iight experiment with that...

Keep the critique coming guys!

Cheers all,

steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Looks good and definitely isn't cookie cutter. For improvements I agree with Beechwood Chip about the boxy box, it should be more of an organic shape to go with the rest of the piece a bit better. On the picture where you can see the back of the box it looks like there is a unfinished dado area. Am I seeing things correctly?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   1 Member, 0 Anonymous, 49 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    422.3k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,781
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    Rtuneion
    Newest Member
    Rtuneion
    Joined