A Couple of Pieces of Furniture

Dave Richards

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It's been a while since I shared anything so I thought i'd put up a couple of images.

This is the Shaker-style bench featured in Fine Woodworking's Tools and Shops issue from late last year.


And this is a mahogany sideboard I designed for a furniture builder's client. It was approved so the next step will be to flesh it out for construction plans.
 
Man, if I had that workbench it'd end up in the living room. It's nicer furniture than anything else we've got in there now.

Great work, Dave. Thanks for sharing. :thumb:
 
10Q sir.

And another. this is based on measured drawings of a table from Gorham, Maine and dated to 1760. The top isn't my favorite but that's how the original was.
 
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I had a little down time this morning and thought I'd try out something I've been thinking about for awhile. This is a plan for the tea table in my previous post. It's based on the plan I worked from to draw the model in the first place. The original plan was published in the very early 1900s. Kind of silly to copy an existing plan, i'll admit, but I wanted to follow it to work out what I'd need to do. I like these sorts of plans because they don't go overboard on the details but instead let the woodworker use his own skills. I think they lead to more originality in design because each woodworker will make it slightly different.

This started with the SketchUp model with the grid, dimensions, dashed lines and text done in LayOut. The PDF export looks better than the raster export.
 
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The concept speaks to how much space was available in a home back then. Today with the enormous houses i see being built around here, there would be a load of tables permanently sitting out loaded with ....junk. lol.
 
The concept speaks to how much space was available in a home back then. Today with the enormous houses i see being built around here, there would be a load of tables permanently sitting out loaded with ....junk. lol.

True, that, Rob. I sometimes think all the horizontal surfaces in my house and shop should tilt up when I walk away. Self-cleaning! :D

For those with the space and who don't like tilt top tables, how about a Colonial-period tavern table instead?

Just getting in a bit of SketchUp practice.
 
A friend of mine is going to build the tavern table. I asked for photos so I'll share them when I get them.

Looking forward to it!

Where did the spice cabinet (?I think its a spice cabinet because of the drawers?) originally come from? I like the looks of it, but am curious how it would have been used, it would have to be hung relatively low to make the drawers useful but still high enough that the rack on the top and the cabinet would be high enough to make sense. So I'm guessing there was some specific purpose(s) in mind for it...
 
Ryan, I don't know what the original was used for. It was made around 1880. It isn't all that unusual in pieces from that time to have drawers above eye level. They'd have been pulled out entirely to access the contents.

I'm thinking this might have been used in a bathroom because of the hanging pegs underneath the case.
 
I was thinking the pegs could have as easily been for hanging dish towels and hot pads? There have been enough changes in domestic accessories in both the kitchen and toilet though that I'm hesitant to say either for sure.

I guess I'm guilty of applying some unconscious modern bias on the drawer usage patterns there - removing to access makes a lot of sense. I could see that working equally as well either for dry goods (like sugar, salt) or sundries (shaving brushes, etc..).

Either way its a nice little piece that could be adapted to either usage it seems.
 
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