Pine Chest of Drawers

This is my first substantial piece of furniture. It was built as a gift for my sister-in-law and her husband. I started out building it for my niece (their daughter) but it turned out much larger than I thought. So they now use it for themselves. They have now commissioned me to build a matching dresser.

I worked in a furniture store for 15 years and worked with all kinds of hand built furniture from Tennessee and Minnesota. Although it was my job back then to sell it, I now can enjoy building my own.

The top turned out to be my favorite part. I wanted a 1” top. Using the planer you can see in the background, I planed some ordinary 2X6’s down to 1”. However, when I bought the first 2X6 at Menard’s it had a red color to it. When I found that I needed another 2X6, I bought it from a local lumber yard and it was not the same color. What to do, what to do. Well, you can see what I did and it looks great!

I also bought pine with a lot of character to it (knots and interesting grain). As a special touch for my sister-in-law, I bought a sheet of aromatic cedar and used it for the back and all the drawer bottoms. That was 23% of the cost right there.

All in all, the project cost me approximately $150 in material but the experience was priceless.

-- If you want perfection, buy plastic, if you want character, buy wood!