This week I got to see some of my favorite customers, A & C. I got to know them last year when I first made them a bed frame, and this year they came down for a matching dresser.
Their bed was pulled right from my catalogue; The Laurelhurst, but with a couple semi-custom modifications. I made the legs longer, and added four large under bed storage drawers. This year was the same thing; The Stark dresser but made to a custom 72" width. We talked over a shorter depth, but settled on the stock depth to allow for the maximum drawer size.
The process started out great, as cherry projects always do. Cherry seems to have a bad rap, I think maybe because it's symbolic of furniture made in, I don't know, the 90's maybe, and is often stained dark cherry red. Personally that look reminds me of an ugly slay bed my sister had growing up. In reality cherry is much lighter in color. It shares a lot of (wood) working qualities with walnut, but is available in much wider boards with far fewer imperfections like knots. It smells nice when cutting, it's cheaper, and what can I say, it's just a treat to work with!
It's always a whirlwind making dressers, and this Stark was no exception with all its details, starting with a continuous grain wrap cabinet. That's where the cabinet parts are cut from one very long glued up panel and mitered to 45 degrees in all corners, so that it looks like a waterfall of wood grain at each edge. It fancy. From there it was solid local big leaf maple drawer boxes with contrasting cherry corner splines, gliding on Blum soft close drawer slides. For the base I dusted off the lathe and hand turned tapered legs. And finally I shaped the drawer fronts with half moon cut outs for finger pulls.
Local pick ups like this one from A & C remind me just how nice it is to connect with people, to learn a bit about their stories, and share a bit of mine. I hope to use this channel to share more with you in the coming months as an effort to stay connected, so if you liked this please do stay in touch!
You can also check out my Instagram for more photos of the build, and also a Reels of me carving half moon drawer pulls. And finally checkout my YouTube to see a long form video of me making a 60" wide walnut version of The Stark dresser last year! Links below.
Until next time, be well!
Kyle