This week’s project comes from Tom in California. Here’s his story:
The fun began when a friend of mine had to cut down several black walnut trees in his backyard – trees planted by his wife’s great grandfather! In exchange for building them a 76×38 kitchen table, he gave me several large logs. I had him buck the logs to put crotches in the middle of the logs. Then I took the logs to a friend that has a small sawmill. The boards have been drying for the last 30 months now. You just cannot find more beautifully grained wood than California-grown black walnut that has been air dried and not steamed and put in a kiln.
Construction: All the drawer fronts and doors were completely replaced. The outside edge of each door and drawer front has a bead detail of moulding applied proud of the surfaces. The inside edges of the rails and stiles (closest to the panel) have a routed bead detail. Stiles and rails are jack mitered together with loose mortise and tenons. The door panels are floating. Each panel has 1/16″ book matched crotch grain (front and back) veneered to 1/8″ baltic birch plywood resulting in ¼†thick panel. The pull out drawers behind the doors are melamine with custom walnut edges with full extension slides.
Finish: The “new” face frames, drawer fronts, door rails/stiles received 5 coats of Waterlox satin applied with a rag and wet sanded flat before the last coat. The door panels received 5 coats of Waterlox gloss applied with a rag and wet sanded before the final coat.
Lesson #1: I made a rookie mistake when planing down the drawer fronts. If you look at the before pics, drawers 5, 6, 7, & 8 show a perfectly book matched grain pattern before planing. I didn’t plane each bookmatch equally, resulting in a less than desirable book match. Not a big deal, but I am my harshest critic!
Lesson #2: Next time I will just remove the face frames and build new ones. This process was very labor intensive. I milled 3/16″ veneer strips, removed the varnish on the existing face frames with a card scraper, block plane and sandpaper, and glued and clamped each piece separately. The gluing and clamping took forever.
12 Responses to “Bath Vanity – Viewer Project”
Very nice! The use of lumber you milled adds a special touch.
Is it just me or does anyone else see a scary demon face in that last panel…?
Pretty impressive project, especially going right back to sourcing the wood. I, um, I built a little planter out of leftover pressure treated today… well technically it’s not finished yet, but I’m sure it will be, um, adequate… -ish…
I won’t be showing your project to my wife, as she is in the market to redo our master bath. Your vanity is beautiful. I have some walnut, but I’m hording it for the “perfect” project.
Very Nice! I also see a scary demon face. Looks like something out of the X-files. I also agree with Skip having turned a big Cherry tree and Maple tree into lumber and then using it for a project. Feels nice. Kinda like getting something for nothing. Claude
Great job. It looks fantastic, even with the scary demon face. I just used that same door hardware on a mahogany dresser. Good choice.
Good stuff.
That’s way too nice to hide in the bathroom. Move it into my living room! I hope that’s not a self portrait on that door panel.
My first response was “thats (expletive) sweet!” but to tone it down a little, “that is a beautiful piece!” It’s fascinating how we go from tree to finished project. Great work!
That is a beautiful piece and i also see a demonic face LOL
Thanks for all the nice comments. Funny, where some saw a demon face, I saw an angel with wings…….Or…. a moth…….Or a butterfly…… Or……… Remember when you were a kid and you layed down on the grass and watched the clouds and imaged all the different shapes you saw?
yep – see the Demon face, but it is a beautiful piece. It is great to see the lumber come from a tree and then the finished product. Keep up the good work.
Man that looks beautiful!