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Before my oldest daughter was born I decided to build her a dresser. I wanted it to be something that was beautiful and could not be found at a store. I knew I wanted to use maple and cherry for contrast. That decision began a family tradition. This was the first project that I took on. I built the whole thing in my backyard, which at the time was about 15' x 10'. For this dresser I created the drawer fronts by gluing a solid strip of cherry in between two solid pieces of maple. The two pieces of maple were cut from the same board. So, if you look at the grain it lines up above and below the cherry.

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Thanks Jim. I was pretty excited about it at the time. Now that I have been building things for 8 years I see all of my mistakes, but that's how it works right!
 

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Well done for the first project. And the color combination works really good too.
So she has been using this for 8 years now? How does the dresser turn out after these years? She must be very proud of a great dad.
 

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Another winner . Your the dresser guy.
 

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I finished it a month or two before she was born. A couple of things that I notice now that I have more experience and better tools are; the drawer front's aren't flat, I didn't have a planer at the time, the detail routing around the edges of the drawer fronts is less than perfect, the finish on the sides have very aparent brush strokes from the laquer. I'm sure I'll refinish it eventually and when that time comes I'll plane the fronts and re-rout them.
 

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Russ, this is a pretty good looking dresser. And you used my favorite wood combination as well. I really like the cherry accent that you added to the piece. The cherry adds visual interest to the dresser.

Without a doubt we are our own worst critics. We tend to focus on the "flaws" in our work more so than other people. The dresser looks pretty good to me. Your daughter certainly has a unique piece of furniture that is now a family heirloom.

Thanks for the post and the story behind it.
 
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