Greene and Greene Dresser

Another project to explore my fascination with Greene and Greene style furniture. This piece was a long time in the making. I scanned my print and online sources for dressers that me and TOWMBO (the one who must be obeyed) liked. I used Sketch up for the plans. It’s a love/hate relationship. It’s good but painful for me to use since I don’t use it enough to be proficient. There was some duplicated effort since i verified some details using the 2D CAD program I’m used to. One of my biggest problems is that I want to get to the shop and make something instead of sitting at the computer making plans. I need to remember that plans are a great benefit later. Seems like I usually realize that after the wood is cut.

The wood is Walnut I bought at an estate sale which was harvested, cut, and air dried in S. central Kansas and was placed in a pole barn for ~20 years. The stickering wasn’t that great for the most part. Some of the boards took a lot of work to get useable pieces out of them. Even though the wood was a bargain, I’ve decided it’s almost worth paying for wood that’s been properly stacked and dried. But the wood is really really beautiful. Bottom drawer fronts are taken from the same piece of wood as are the top drawers and dividers on the left and right side. The side panels are 1/4 panels of the same lumber. Drawer sides, bottoms, inner carcase frame, and other inner pieces are pine or poplar. This is a no plywood project.

The case work is pretty standard. The top drawers are on wooden slides, the rest are on metal glides. Of course I was asked to use glides after I had the fronts fitted for slides. Reworking them took some time. I couldn’t get all the margins completely uniform but I really don’t notice it now that it’s in the bed room.
The ebony insert idea on the top drawers is from the Anderson Server I did earlier. The pulls on the large drawers were taken from one of the books by Darrell Peart. I still don’t have a good technique to cut the slots on the top but I’m getting better at it.

Finish is Watco medium walnut with one coat of orange / clear shellac combination (1:4 ratio). The 3 top coats are clear shellac. I then rubbed out the shellac with old school furniture polish and steel wool. This seems to cut the gloss of the shellac and gives it a nice smooth satin look.
I enjoy making this stuff – hope you like it also.

I completed match end tables and bed frame earlier. I’ll post those later “when I’m caught up on my honey dos”. Our G&G bedroom set of walnut and ebony inserts is complete.