An early project. Simple and elegant, this bedside table is one of my oldest pieces.
Years ago, when country decorating was cool (remember that?!), we had as a bedside table one of those round particle board tables that have the three screw-in legs. Then we found some nice country like fabric and threw that over the whole thing. This made my wife happy for a number of years, but as a woodworker, I would sometimes cringe at the sight of it. As I remember, my wife needed some storage space so an actual table with doors and a drawer was order (I called the old table an almost table or a near table; for a woodworker, this kind of table isn't really a table).
When we were first married, we purchased a Thomasville bedroom set that included a nice dresser, a chest on chest and a four poster bed, all made of knotty pine. At that time, knotty pine was my wood of choice and the manufacturer had dropped this particular line of furniture, so when we were not able to purchase a side table from their collection, I came up with a design that looked similar, and the result is the bedside table shown above.
As you can also see by the quilt rack and oval box, I was into Shaker furniture at one point. On the other side of the bed, out of view, is a Shaker low back chair, all of these from Shaker Workshops.
Thomasville inspiration
I used our Thomasville chest on chest (shown below) as a guide when designing our bedside table. Overall, for a mass produced piece of furniture, it is nice: fluted corner columns, dentil molding and bracket feet. And the knots are frequent.
"Make it look like that." My wife asked that the bedside table resemble this Thomasville chest on chest. Once upon a time, I started painting this room (note the door) but never finished it. We will paint this room in a few months. I hate stained base boards.
For our bedside table, I copied the side panel layout which is plain except for a little roundover on the top and bottom rails. I also borrowed the design of the bracket feet and included brass pulls, knobs and a key hole. I tried very hard to replicate the color and it is pretty close, but not exact. This is the first piece in which I added a bead around the drawer and doors and the first to have a chamfer on the corners.
This was also my first attempt at raised panels. I had to come up with a creative way to do this since my first router, a basic Craftsman model, would not handle the larger shafts found on panel raising bits. I cut a rabbet in the panels and then cut a small cove to create a raised panel look. And for a work around, I think it turned out pretty good.
Years of service. This table is about 15 years old and has held up well.
The only thing I would do differently today, would be to choose another drawer slide. This table has a center mounted drawer slide and due to the weight of all the stuff in the drawer, the slide has dragged on the bead and has damaged it (visible in the photo above). I have been meaning to attempt some sort of repair, but as you can see I have not gotten around to it. And for a soft wood, this pine piece has done very well even though there is a ding here and there. It is one of my last pieces of pine furniture.
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1 comment:
Country decorating - may it never return! Nice table.
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