This is an Advanced Project
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 history of the design, from Darrell Peart:
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!
