Master Bedroom
Watch this video that takes a quick tour of the furniture I've made for my master bedroom. Future blog entries will include the family room, kitchen, dining room, guest bedroom, and living room.
I've built seven pieces of furniture for my master bedroom over the years. I like furniture that is in the Shaker or the modern Shaker style and have stayed mostly with that style in solid cherry with a natural oil finish.
The bed is the oldest piece and was built in 1991.
The night stands followed shortly after the bed. These classic Shaker tables are a perfect project to help introduce a friend or family member to woodworking. It involves many disciplines to include edge gluing a panel, building a carcass frame using mortise and tenon joints, dovetailing a drawer, and tapering a leg.
The cherry wardrobe introduced me to large case construction. The case sides are always bigger than a home-sized planer, so I've learned the beauty of a sharp hand plane.
The lower half of the wardrobe contains a useful bank of drawers. It's kind of a pain to open a door to get to a drawer. I like Thos. Moser's design of his Dr. White's chest where the door only covers the shelf area. I'm building my daughter one of those now.
The seven-drawer chest of drawers holds a lot of clothes and is very solid. My Dad made the bowl and the small box on top of the chest.
The desk has been used in the dining room of two previous houses, the living room of another, and currently finds its home in the master bedroom. I was concerned about how an L-shaped desk would fit in future homes, but I've always found a good place for it. This is my own design and combines traditional, tapered Shaker legs with a profiled edge laminate top. This mix of styles helps the piece fit any room.
The book case is the newest piece and was probably built in 2004 or so.
You can see from the photos and the video that the furniture blends well together. It helps to have a master plan for your furniture building. You might change this plan on occasion, but your plan will ensure style integration and help prioritize your efforts. It's very satisfying to survey a room and realize that you've made almost every piece in it with your own hands!