When April mentioned the idea of building a little chest this winter, I thought, “Sure… that would be fun. Maybe we can use it like a coffee table, too. You know, throw books and our feet up on it.” Needless to say, I didn’t quite have the expectation of building a bomb-proof, beautiful piece of furniture.
Once we got the bug in our heads, and once Greg started showing off his amazing cherry wood supply, things started looking a bit different. We ended up finding a set of Shaker blanket chest plans we really liked, and all of a sudden the outlook was looking a lot more refined than I would have originally imagined.
Shaker Blanket Chest
To read the full text of my article about building a Shaker blanket chest, go to Highland Woodworking — it’s a featured article in their Wood News publication. Here are some photos from the building process. Enjoy.
Sawing dovetails for the main carcass — don’t go past the line there!
Freshly chopped tails in the back piece of the carcass… these will be directly traced on the sides for cutting the pins
A freshly glued-up carcass, and not a clamp too few
A wonderfully square carcass, thanks to very precise milling
A look at the plinth, with dovetailed corners and rounded leg detail
This is the sliding dovetail key that hides the endgrain in the drawer portion of the carcass — the topmost piece of wood slides down and gets glued only on the top key
The drawer is glued and ready for finish sanding and fitting
The breadboard end has three mortises that will slide over the lid tenons
A piece of the gorgeous cedar we used to line the chest interior
A little bit of oil and the grain immediately pops
Check out that curly cherry on the front of the chest
I love the long line of dovetails here, combined with the almost “3D” effect of the curly wood
(Some images are from Greg’s blog, see here.)