I have been working on the blanket chest for a year or more. It actually did not start off as a chest, but as a disguised cat litter cabinet, believe it or not. But it was taking me so long to complete that we went ahead and bought a litter cabinet (we have 4 cats so concealing the litter boxes is a priority for us).

Anyways, I decided to make this into a chest since we didn’t have one, and storage is always needed. The maple panels are simple 1/2” cabinet grade maple ply I had left over from a built-in project. I decided to use a mixture of sapwood and heartwood for the walnut because I like the contrast and figure.

The chest is lined with cedar, finished with oil based poly on the outside, and General’s water-based poly on the inside (bottom only) to prevent the outgassing onto the contents of the chest. I used a pair of 60lb self supporting hinges from Rockler which work great. All in all this was a very fun project. The joinery was more complex than I have ever done (no nails in this sucker).

Oh – I also made sure the legs of the chest were high enough so that our Roomba vacuum can drive under it. hah hah

This project took me about 4 months to complete back in 2007. I had never built a bar before, but I figured its just a bunch of cabinets put together right? Well, a little more complicated than that.

The raised panels are all spalted soft maple (colored with Transtint dye), and the rails/stiles are walnut. The bar top has a walnut bar rail (outsourced) and a maple burl veneer that I got off ebay. Glueing down that veneer was nerve racking to say the least. I used veener tape to join three pieces to one and it came out great.

Finally added the kegerator and taps, touchscreen monitor for the soundsystem, and some under cab mood lighting and I have been enjoying it ever since! Thanks for looking!