Blanket Chest - Retrospective

Two years ago for Christmas I gave my new wife a blanket chest. I had wanted to build it for about 15 years, but my skills were never up to snuff, or so I thought. It is amazing what 2 years under the tutelage of a Master Furniture Maker can do. My inspiration for the blanket chest are mainly two; I live near Boston and have always enjoyed going to the Museum of Fine Arts and looked at the antique American furniture collection. Most of all I like the blanket chests, and promised myself I would build one someday. Secondly, my mother has a old bench chest from German that I always loved an it simple lines.

Basically the goal was to build my wife & me “A replica of a 17th Century Pennsylvania blanket chest with heavy German influences in white oak.” The word “replica” is loosely used; it is more an “inspired” piece.

So I am going to endeavor to go back through my shop notes, plans, and pictures and reconstruct this project. I hope you find it useful, I certainly did. BTW this project took me a very long time 110 hours that includes recovering for 3 major mistakes. Oh, where ever I could use a power tool I did. It was my 4th funiture project ever.