Sunday, December 24, 2006

The Bedside Tables

Dave has completed and delivered the gorgeous bedside tables to Paul & Dawn. These are made from cherry wood, with walnut accents, and were made to match and compliment their king-sized bed, built & delivered last year.

Magnificent king-sized bed (2005)

Cherry table, front 3/4 view

Drawer & drawer pull detail (profile)

Drawer pull detail (face)

Shelf detail

Top view

Their room is small, and there was little space for the tables on either side of the bed, so the dimensions of the tables are somewhat unconventional - tall and slender, with an almost square top. Dave carefully book-matched highly figured cherry pieces to make each top, utilized walnut for the pegs to accent the cherry, and hand-carved the drawer pulls. As always, he hand cut his dovetails, but for these tables, Dave utilized even more hand tools in the construction than usual, and was delighted with the result. He has always done a lot of manual work on all of his pieces, and he has discovered that this provides him with a lot more control and finesse than power tools can provide.

While the finished product looks fantastic, there are construction elements which are never seen in the final piece, yet which ultimately combine to make Dave's work built to last. Here is an example of a hidden joint in the tables:


Dave is now back to working on our house. He is redoing the window trim on almost all of the upstairs windows, building wider sills, and creating finishing surround trim. Please see The Decorating Challenge on our other site for pictures of the built-in window bench that he finished this summer.

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