Chest of Drawers

Marc Spagnuolo

At first glance, the Chest of Drawers may appear to be a rather advanced project. But you'll be surprised at how easy it is when you see all the steps laid out in a sensible order. We provide enough detail in this series that even an absolute beginner can successfully build this project.

The Chest of Drawers measures 32" Wide x 18" Deep x 48" High.

  • 12 lessons
  • 330 min
  • $79.00$69.00

Here's what we'll cover:

  1. Project Tour

    Chest of drawers design justification and style options, the SketchUp file, purchasing lumber, and the video schedule.

  2. Selecting and Preparing Rough Stock

    How to select and break down your stock for the best possible appearance.

  3. Rough Cuts with a Circular Saw

    An alternative method for cutting down rough lumber: the circular saw.

  4. Leg Joinery

    Each leg receives a groove, mortises for the haunched tenons, as well as mortises for the divider supports and it all starts with a story stick.

  5. Modern Curved Legs

    How to create a template from scratch, and use it to create our modern curved legs.

  6. Beveled Tapered Leg

    A live demo showing how to make yet another type of leg for the chest of drawers.

  7. The Rails

    The rails receive panel grooves, web-frame grooves, rabbets, regular tenons, haunched tenons, and mortises!

  8. Curved Rails and Panels

    How to make curved rails and curved panels.

  9. Divider Supports and Web Frames

    Creating and attaching the divider supports and the web frames.

  10. Case Assembly & Drawer Construction

    The case comes together and the drawers are constructed using something other than dovetails!

  11. Drawer Fitting, Pulls & Knobs

    Techniques for finessing the fit of the drawers and some interesting designs for the drawer pulls and knobs.

  12. The Top & Finishing Touches

    The conclusion of our chest of drawers series, including the construction of the top and applying our finish.

 What You’ll Receive:

  • Detailed cut list and plans including a PDF and a SketchUp file.
  • Hours of detailed video instruction showing every step of the build, from wood selection to finishing.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Frame & Panel construction
  • Web frame (dust frame) construction
  • How to make and use story sticks
  • Creating curved templates
  • Cutting curves
  • Making a flush trim router jig
  • Sliding Dovetails
  • Alternative leg designs
  • Drawer construction and fitting
  • Reinforced Dovetail Drawers
  • How to apply a water-based finish via HVLP
  • Milling extra wide boards
  • Mortise and tenon joints
  • Routing grooves
  • Cutting tenons, grooves, and dados at the table saw
  • Working with large sheets of plywood

What You’ll Need:

  • Jointer and Planer (if not buying pre-milled stock)
  • Tablesaw
  • Bandsaw (or Jigsaw)
  • Miter Saw, Drill, Router (or Router Table)

 

Reviews:

Marc does a fabulous job with this build. With his easy listen technique, he shows you each step. Each video lesson is first class.

Chris
Guild Member

This was the first Guild project I purchased, and boy did it not disappoint. The instruction is amazing, there’s a wealth of techniques covered, and the design is beautiful. While I haven’t built this full chest of drawers as designed here, I’ve adapted the design and techniques into a bookcase and a lateral file cabinet in the same aesthetic, and they turned out beautifully. Could not recommend this more.

Alex Leffelman
Guild Member

Wonderful heirloom piece

This is Renée’s Dresser, made for my wife to reside in our newly renovated NC mountain home. I used Marc’s basic web frame design, incorporated Mission style elements, breadboard ends on the top and expanded the dresser to 12 drawers using SketchUp. The project presentation was thorough and fun and I went back to it many times over in the 200+ hours of the build. All of those drawer element x12 were especially time consuming. The drawer boxes are made from re-puposed pine shutters from the pre-renovation house. I especially enjoyed the precision joinery and the emphasis on hand tools to fine tune the myriad of parts that had to fit together. Thanks, Marc. You are a gifted teacher.

Anthony
Guild Member
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About Your Instructor:

Marc is a podcaster, video producer, woodworking enthusiast, and author of Hybrid Woodworking and Essential Joinery. He has contributed articles and video content to FineWoodworking.com, Popular Woodworking Magazine, WOOD Magazine, and Woodcraft Magazine. He is also the host of The Wood Whisperer, an instructional woodworking video series that’s been going strong since 2006. He is also one of the hosts of the Wood Talk podcast. He has taught classes at the William Ng School, Marc Adams School, Weekend with Wood, Fine Woodworking Live, as well as at various Rockler and Woodcraft stores. He also speaks periodically at woodworking events like AWFS and IWF.