Bedroom Suite – Project of the Week

November 12, 2008 by thewoodwhisperer · 4 Comments
Filed under: Armoires, Beds, Chest of Drawers 

This week’s project comes from Chad. Let’s see what he has to say:

“Back in 1999, my wife wanted a “nice bedroom suite.” I happily looked into it for her, and was shocked at the cost of a full bedroom suite. Anywhere from $3,000 to $4,500. And surely none of them were actually solid wood. I had just started my hobby of woodworking, and so I asked my wife if she was willing “to have a piece made one at a time.” She said she would be. I designed the first piece, the armoire, and then asked her what type of wood she wanted….she said knotty pine. “Sweet,” I thought, “that is the cheapest wood in the world.” First I made the armoire, then we moved. I then made the dresser and a few months later, I made the end tables. All of this within about 2 years. (hey, I was in the Army, and I was busy defending my country.)”

“Anyhow, I never made the bed because I had bought a nice and inexpensive wrought iron bed, picked up at a garage sale. Earlier this year though, I decided it was about time to “finish” the bedroom suite. I designed the bed to be very simple, but with the same raised panel styling I had used in the other pieces. It took me many nights and weekends, but in the end, I think it turned out pretty good. All of the lumber was purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot. Each piece had three staining layers of Minwax Golden Oak. With three layers of polyurethane, semi-gloss.”

“Needless to say, my wife is very pleased, and I am happy to have the whole suite completed. As a side note, my wife told me a few years ago that the only reason she agreed to let me build the suite way back when was because, as she says, “I didn’t really think you could do it, so I said yes so that I didn’t hurt your feelings.” I guess it’s easy to please someone with low expectations!”


Murphy Bed – Project of the Week

September 11, 2008 by thewoodwhisperer · 12 Comments
Filed under: Beds, Built-ins 

This week’s project comes from Bob. Let’s check it out and read his comments:

Here are a couple of photos of a Murphy Bed and pair of bookcases that I made for the spare bedroom/office in my home. I got the project plans from Workbench magazine and modified it to fit my space. The Murphy Bed mechanism came from Rockler. I made the sides of the bed and bookcases from Birch plywood. White Birch hardwood was used for the face frames. I used Minwax tung oil and wipe on poly to finish the project. The center section was painted to match the walls. I don’t have a mattress yet so that’s why I’m using my air compressor as a counter weight.

This is the fifth woodworking project that I’ve undertaken and by far it’s the largest. It’s not perfect but it’s functional. I’ve learned a lot from building it and I hope to avoid my mistakes on future projects. Thanks for the web site and keep up the good work.

  • Latest Video

  • Proud to be Sponsored By:


  • Support our Advertisers


  • What Marc’s Reading

  • Recent Community Posts

  • Lumberjocks Latest

    Loading the LumberJocks Widget
  • Translator