Michelle & Luke’s Bedroom Furniture
I have been making furniture for the family for years now. It is my contribution to the family and they seem to really enjoy it. It is quality furniture that will last many years. My wife always says they will be family heirlooms and she is right.
Michelle is my oldest daughter and she is married to Luke.
This furniture for Michelle and Luke is called Mid-Century Modern. The set includes a dresser, two night stands and a king bed.
I started with the dresser. A dresser is a type of cabinet. To make a dresser you first have to calculate the drawer configuration and spacing from the front view. This is called the drawer spacing. In this dresser the horizontal and vertical spacing was equal for the wide bottom drawers and equal for the smaller top drawers. This simplifies drawer box and drawer face construction although I often make larger drawers on the bottom to give flexibility.
This dresser was constructed using pocket screws. There is a big debate on whether using pocket screws is acceptable in place of traditional joints. I have had good success with pocket screws when making furniture. The last dresser I made for my youngest grandson I used stop dados for the horizontal drawer dividers and it worked very well. I believe that will be my technique going forward.
Notice the two small 7 3/8” sticks on the far side. I often use sticks like this during assembly to get everything lined up. It is more precise than just trying to measure and mark.
The “customers” opted for an open shelf instead of a top drawer. I like that style. The rounded outside of the thin legs looks nice too. To prevent end grain on the top and shelf I banded the width of the legs around the top. It dressed up the top nicely.
Notice the strips inside the drawer opening to accept the drawer slides. This is necessary because the legs are wider than the sides and drawer slides must be on the same plane as the front of the opening. As with almost all of my furniture the outside exposed corners are eased slightly to improve durability and the feel of the corners.
High quality drawer slides were used. I never cut costs if it lessens the quality.
When installing drawer fronts I always test fit using plastic Handi-Shims. You can buy them and they are multi colored with shims in many thicknesses from 1/32 to 1/4”. I normally target 1/16” to 1/8” for my inset drawers and doors. For this piece it was 1/8” for the era.
