With the arrival of our first child we set up one room for a nursery. Despite some planning, no one will be surprised to learn that not everything was completed prior to the delivery date. So we ended up with a very fashionable shelf made out of a cardboard box. (Note before and after pictures)

After our son had arrived, a neighbor asked me if I would cut some Mahogany boards he had to some specific lengths, which I was happy to do. I asked him if he wanted the cut-offs, which he didn’t, so I ended up with 6 tongue and grove boards about 2 feet long, along with some smaller boards (darker color boards). I used them to make this shelf along with some left over Meranti boards I used in my Day/Trundle bed (lighter color boards).

I enjoyed making the rounded corners, and using a round over bit on both sides of a board to create the edge treatment. The two different colors of wood really make the piece stand out. Three coats of a clear wipe on poly finished it off.

I appreciate all comments, especially ones that will help my next project to be just a little bit better.

Thank you,
-David

My wife and I are expecting many things. One of them is a baby :-D Another is house guests. Since the baby will be taking the “guest” room, the third bedroom which we called an “Office” gets to be remade into a room that will host guests, an office desk, and a library. To allow our guests to sleep on something other than the floor we decided we needed a day / trundle bed for that room.

So I said to myself. . . Self! – How hard could it be to build one of those things??? There are times in life when ignorance is such a wonderful thing. :-) While I didn’t find the actual cutting, routing, fastening, and finishing as difficult as I had feared it would be, I did learn that it’s harder to design than to build, and it took much longer that I expected it too take. But I got it done prior to the baby’s arrival (5 weeks or so)!!!

I had only really done a picnic table and a couple of small boxes prior to this, so it was a huge leap for me. I would say that I lack experience, but I sure gained a lot while doing this project. If you see something that could have done differently let me know, I’m interested in learning more.

Thank you for your comments in advance.
-Peace, David