Darrell Peart's Fremont Nightstand takes Greene & Greene influence to new heights. Featuring three drawers, breadboard ends, finger joints, and custom drawer pulls, this heirloom piece will challenge and expand your woodworking skillset.
Made from Mahogany and Ebony, the dimensions are 26″ W x 18″D x 27″H
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That doesn’t necessarily mean that the project is very difficult, it means that there won’t be quite as much hand-holding as we normally aim for in the Guild. Darrell uses specific tools such as a biscuit joiner and a Festool Domino. While there are alternative options, this series doesn’t cover them. An experienced woodworker should have no problem substituting their own joinery preference. Also, because guest instructor projects are filmed on the road with a limited time to work with, we just can’t spend as much time on each segment as we’d like. A beginning woodworker might find the pace too fast. Between the videos, the cut list, and the dimensioned drawings, a relatively experienced woodworker will be able to step through the process.
The Fremont Nightstand came about as many designs do from a client request. My client had purchased an Aurora Chest of Drawers and wanted two three-drawer Nightstands as companions. My Aurora nightstand only had one drawer, and in my mind, adding two more drawers to the design simply would not work. I had to start fresh. I decided to retain the single drawer from the Aurora NS as the top drawer for the new piece. I also decided upon case construction (as opposed to legs and aprons) – which allowed me to use the tapered leg from the Chest of Drawers.
It had been a few years since I had designed the Chest of Drawers and in the meantime some tweaks to the design had been bouncing around in my head. The most important of these was a re-work of the leg to add a sort of corbel at the top. In my mind the corbel reaches out and gives added visual support to the top.
This was one of those magical designs that took form as if I were just sitting back and watching the process take place. Subconsciously, I think I had worked out much of this design even before I had the client request.
The biggest problem this piece presented was – what to name it! I already had an Aurora Nightstand – and I did not want to go with Aurora Nightstand II. So thinking back – the original inspiration for my Aurora series came when standing in line at the grocery store while looking out the window to the arches in the Aurora Bridge. The Aurora Bridge connects the Fremont District in Seattle with Queen Anne. I was standing on the Fremont side of the bridge. If I had been standing on the Queen Anne side – that would have complicated things!
Please note that if you intend to build Darrell’s designs for profit, you’ll want to contact him directly regarding licensing fees.
The video instruction and plans were phenomenal. When I had questions, Darrell responded quickly. It was a wonderful experience and the nightstands turned out great. Going for the rest of the bedroom suite now.
What a fantastic build! The video instruction was superb and the plans were great. Quite the challenge on many levels for me but I learned a ton of new skills and techniques along the way. I very much appreciated Darrell’s philosophy on how and why he did what he does. Hard to believe that such high level instruction is available like this. Thank you to the Guild to make this possible!
A challenging and entertaining project! Darrell does a great job of explaining the reasoning behind his order of work and pointing out how to achieve the details of his design elements. It’s great to be able to view the lessons over at any time, as some things went by me very quickly and new details became clearer with repeated viewings. I liked that some mistakes were not edited out and I was able to see how Darrell dealt with them. I’m looking forward to more classes with Darrell and Marc.
Darrell Peart started his career in the early 1970’s making and selling small wooden items at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. To broaden his experience, he then went on to work for various high-end custom shops throughout the Puget Sound area gaining an extensive background in both commercial and custom furniture making.
Exploring new design ideas is where Darrell’s passion lies. Although the influence of Greene and Greene can clearly be seen in his work – he draws inspiration from other varied sources as well.
Darrell also writes and lectures about design, woodworking, and the history of Greene & Greene. He has written articles for Home Furniture, Today’s Woodworker, Fine Woodworking, Woodwork, Popular Woodworking, American Woodworker, Woodworker West, Style 1900, British Woodworking, 360 Woodworking, The SAPFM Journal, and Australian Wood Review.
His first book, Greene and Greene: Design Elements for the Workshop, was published in April 2006 by Linden Press followed by his second book In the Greene & Greene Style: Projects and Details for the Woodworker, in 2013.