Thursday, January 17, 2013

Master Dresser Project

The master bedroom is going to be the first room I tackle because a very special project is nearly done - a dresser built by me!  Can hardly believe that I get to say that!  Here are some pictures of it in progress.
Building the box - summer


Attaching drawer fronts - winter


Nearly finished!



And how did I become a furniture making mama, you ask?  (Not that anyone is asking since my husband is the only one who is reading this.)  My absolute idol on the internet is an amazing woman named Ana White.  You can find here facebook site here  www.facebook.com/knockoffwood.com and her main website here www.ana-white.com.   She lives in Alaska and builds furniture, houses, and huge crowds of fans.  Ana generously posts plans for everything from furniture to toys, and they are all free.  She is so generous with her personal time answering a lot of questions from newbies like me, and her readers also give great guidance and support.

After discovering Ana early last year, I decided that I would take a weekend cabinet-making class at our local Woodcraft.  Our instructor, Art, taught us the basics of drawing up our own plans and helped me to learn the table saw, track saw, and the Kreg jig pocket hole thing. (Thanks, Art!)

The dresser plan is based on the Patrick's Beach Dresser on Ana's site but doubled in width and different legs.  You can see all sorts of modification to plans on the Brag Posts on Ana's site.

So why a dresser?  My hubs and I always joked that when our son grew up, he would think that his parents' favorite hobby was dresser shopping.  No kidding!  We have been shopping for a dresser for 8 years, and if we liked them, they were too expensive.   Plus, we wanted a very specific simple style.  Enter my first build.  (I don't advise this as a first build.  Please don't. Pick something that doesn't need to be squared.  Mark Twain said, "Ignorance and confidence, and success is assured.  I was definitely ignorant; confident, naaah, mostly ignorant.)

It's true that I have been building it in our family room since August, but it is massive and it does have 8 drawers.  And, I had to wait for a sale on compound miter saws.  And I made several  a few mistakes that had to be redone.  And I had to sand and sand.  And I became paralyzed at the thought of staining and finishing the thing and let it sit for a month because I didn't want to ruin it.

But now, other than feet, which will be completed this week, it is FINISHED! There are some imperfections, but so what?! Yea me!  Building is so much fun.  Pics of the final dresser next post.

*This post was written before I changed the name of my blog.*

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