Shoe Cabinet

This one started out designed to hold shoes for my 2 boys. It ended up being an exercise in frustration, perseverance, and not quite large enough for it’s intended purpose :) It’s still quite handy and used by my older son to house books, Rubik’s cubes, and the other miscellaneous small items that a 15 year-old young man accumulates.

Lessons learned here – don’t try more than 1 new technique per project! This project was the maiden voyage with a Leigh dovetail jig (carcase is joined with half-blind dovetails). It was also my first attempt at using a sliding dovetail. Somehow, the pieces kept getting smaller and smaller… Anyway, being too stubborn to glue up and mill new, “full sized” panels, I simply reduced the dimensions of the finished piece.

I was going for a contemporary, Scandinavian feel. Carcase, top and fixed shelf are solid maple. Base is “ebonized” poplar. Spray paint and a few coats of wipe-on poly ;) The dark detail band at the top was made by spray painting some strips of 1/8” hardboard black and sandwiching them between the carcase and the top. The carcase and top were finished with sprayed on water-base lacquer.

A great deal of learning was gleaned from this small piece of furniture!

-- Jon -- Just a Minnesota kid hanging out in Kansas