Pete's Furniture

Danish Modern Style Bed Version 2.0

2012-01-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

I revised the design from before, bringing the headboard out flush with the back of the bed, and echoing the soft curve of the front legs with the back legs (if that makes sense). I built this out of walnut. I sold it to a couple who lives in a rad home up on a cliff in Silverlake- we had to haul it up about 100 steps to get to the house! I'm stoked on where it ended up though, it's a great home and great people.
p.s. I want to start coming up with names for these original designs, but I haven't been able to think of anything yet. Submissions are welcome!

Wall Unit/Record Case

2012-01-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

I built a sweet wall unit for our condo, but it never really fit anywhere in our new home. Thankfully, a couple came over one day and saw it and wanted it, so it's in a new home now. This freed me up to build one that fit perfectly where we wanted it. It's built from pecan/hickory plywood, and I left the plywood edge exposed.

Outdoor Bench

2011-12-05T23:18:00.000-08:00

We tore down an enormous brick fireplace and replaced it with this bench that we designed and I built. Jana (my wife) had the idea to plant the succulents underneath, which will look amazing when they grow in fully. We had our first outdoor party with it a few nights ago with some friends and a fire and it was fantastic!

Danish Modern Style Bed

2011-11-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

This is a new bed design I dreamed up and decided to build. It's built from jatoba (a.k.a. Brazillian cherry), rosewood and maple.

Armoire

2011-09-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

I built a storage bed this summer and was asked if I could build an armoire to match it, thus comprising a bedroom set. I'd never built an armoire but it sounded like a great design challenge and a chance to stretch my skills so here it is. It's built from baltic birch with jatoba (Brazilian cherry) veneer and solid jatoba and rosewood. I really like the variety of tones in the wood.
Our friends Randy and Megan came over to help me take some good photographs of the piece. Randy taught me the power of a solid white background and proper shading in taking good photos, plus he brought over his nice camera and artistic eye. Thanks Randy!

storage bed with cabinet headboard

2011-09-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

I built this bed with the storage drawers last summer for our friend Jen, who wanted to surprise her husband for their 10-year wedding anniversary. She asked me to build it without a headboard so that, down the road, she could have me build a cabinet-style headboard to go with it. Her husband Appie contacted me this summer and wanted to surprise Jen with the headboard for their 11th anniversary. So it took a year to put all together, but here it is. The bed is all solid cherry, and the headboard is plywood with cherry veneer.

Twin Bed with Storage

2011-08-25T16:18:00.001-07:00

I love this bed. It's solid walnut and turned out incredible. The basic design is not my own, but I added the turned legs and the drawer pulls. My favorite detail is the expressive, continuous wood on the drawer fronts. Hopefully this detail will be observable in these pictures.

Rosewood Storage Bed with Night Stands

2011-08-16T08:18:00.001-07:00

For this bed it was requested that the drawers be very deep- 10 inches as opposed to the normal 5 - 6 inches. So I decided to build them out of baltic birch plywood and cover them with a veneer. The veneer is Indian rosewood while the bed is mostly South American rosewood, but I think it made for an interesting contrast. The headboard is really interesting too- it's got all kinds of birdseye-like markings and highly expressive grain action. I don't really have any idea what type of wood it is but it was mixed in with my stock of rosewood and it looked awesome so I used it. I also really like the pulls on the night stand drawers.

Walnut Closet Doors

2011-07-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

There is a long, harrowing history to this project that I wont bore my readers with, but suffice it to say that after breaking 4 mirrors and an expensive piece of frosted glass, I realized that I really hate glass, and decided to do these in walnut.

Floating Nightstands Round 2

2011-07-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

This shipping company called Saia destroyed my shipment to Canada (here's some free advice- don't use Saia) so I had to rebuild this set. It was a bummer, but I think I like the way this turned out even better the second time. I'm especially fond of the headboard, which is rather wondrous I must say.

King Storage Bed with Turned Legs in Walnut

2011-06-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much says it all. I think this bed turned out super boss.

Floating Nightstands

2011-05-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

This nightstand design was born from the following question: if you strip down a nightstand to its most essential elements, what do you have? My answer: a small table for a lamp, alarm clock and/or book and a drawer for whatever you’d rather not have on display. From there I arrived at this design, sort of a night stand without sides, or a see-through night stand, or however you want to think about it. My favorite part about this design is the fact that the drawer sliding elements are inside the drawer, so that the drawer appears to be floating from all angles beside the back. The added bonus to this design is that, when stripped down as described, the nightstand becomes light enough to float off the ground, attached to the bed with 4 screws.

The bed and nightstands are from solid rosewood, and I also built a sweet candle chandelier from the same material (photos will be forthcoming). The drawers on the nightstands are solid rosewood (minus the bottom) as well. Also notable is the fact that the slats are reclaimed from the legendary Acres of Books bookstore in Long Beach, recently shut down. These slats once composed book shelves- pretty cool, right? Now I’ve got to figure out how to get all of this to Canada- wish me luck!

Designs, Models

2011-04-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a furniture design class at Cerritos City College, and these are models of my first two projects.
The first project was for a table, so this is an idea for a cantilevered coffee table. The shelf is intended to store remote controls and/or magazines and is meant to be hidden from view, which it mostly would be unless someone was to purposely look under the table. Somehow my shelf on the model didn't end up parallel to the table top, but this is just a flaw in the model, not a strange design element. The model is 1/8 scale. Eventually I'd like to build this with rosewood legs and perhaps a contrasting top, like maple, or vise-versa.
The second project was for a case good, i.e. a piece of furniture that holds something. This is a credenza/entertainment cabinet. The fabric would hide speakers, and the shelves would hold a turntable, records, dvd player, etc. The doors would open like garage doors (vertically). I made them out of zebra wood on this model just for fun, but I actually really like the zebra wood next to the fabric. I don't know what species I'd use for the cabinet, probably something dark. The model is 1/4 scale. I can't wait to build this!

Faye's crib

2011-04-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

I built this crib for our new daughter Faye. It's walnut with zebra wood on the head and toe boards. It feels very much mid century modern- did anyone think to build cribs in modernism's heyday? Or would it have been unusual to fuss so much over something for a child, and something only to be used for a short period of time back then? I don't know the answers to these questions, but this crib feels to me like it would have fit right in 60 years ago.

Platform bed with angled legs

2011-03-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

I built this bed for a couple in Arizona. It's a borrowed design, with a few modifications. It presented quite a few challenges, such as engineering it in such that it could be taken apart, shipped, and reassembled by someone else. Also, figuring out how to support the headboard panels on a cantilevered edge was quite the task. And most importantly, figuring how to make it properly supportive with 45 degree-angled legs. Plus, everything is mitered (2 45 degree angles to make a right angle), which leaves little margin for error. I asked my furniture design professor (highly regarded builder Todd Ouwehand) for advice and, after thinking it over for a few moments, simply said 'I don't like mitered corners very much.' Indeed- they look great, but are a pain. Well I think it was all worth the trouble, because the bed looks fantastic. It's built from solid walnut.

Rosewood Storage Bed

2011-02-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

I built this bed for a couple with a sweet house in Los Feliz. This bed is in a guest bedroom with an amazing Danish modern wall unit on the opposing wall. Everything about their home had me in awe, so I'm psyched to have one of my pieces there. The bed is built from solid rosewood, including the headboard, which is comprised of 7 boards glued together and sanded with much blood, sweat and tears and a combination of drum sander, belt sander, orbital sander, and hand paper. I hated every minute of it and wondered why I didn't just use a veneer, but when it was done and in place I was thankful that I did it the way I did- it looks stunning.

Solid Cherry Table Top

2011-02-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

I made this table top for my friends Josh and Rafi, a.k.a. Form Los Angeles. It's 5 planks of solid cherry joined and cut to an oval with a cove edge detail. I used some type of dark, non-toxic oil that Josh and Rafi found. The legs were fabricated by someone else. The overall effect is pretty strong.

Rosewood bed with turned legs

2011-01-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

This bed represents my first attempt at turning tapered legs on my lathe (actually, it's on my shopsmith, which is many tools in one, and a tool that is very dear to my heart), and also my first time veneering. I was previously intimidated by both tasks, but everything went off without a hitch. The veneer on the headboard is actually a species called jatoba, also known as Brazilian cherry, but it blends perfectly with the rosewood frame. Everything else is solid rosewood. Thanks to Chad Cress for the really nice photos, and to John Douglas for the lathe photo. The first and least impressive photo is by yours truly.

Bill Boyne's handrail

2011-01-19T20:21:00.000-08:00

Bill Boyne contacted me a little more than a year ago, and asked me to build him a handrail. Bill learned of me through my best friend Nate, who was his mechanic at the time. Bill had a large piece of redwood that he had been saving for years (at least 10, if I remember correctly) for the purpose of building a handrail, but had been slow getting around to it. I came to learn that Bill was a builder himself, but was now advanced in age and did not feel up to the task of handling this enormous piece of redwood.
Bill spent about 30 minutes with me working out the shape of the handrail, drawing on a small piece of cardboard for me to take with me. A few days later we spoke on the phone and he asked me if I ever used walnut (I do), and mentioned that he had some he'd like to give me, which I could hardly believe. I crafted the handrail and delivered it a week or two later. He looked at it and approved, but wanted to make some modifications to get it ready for installation. And so we spent about two hours working together in his garage, crafting a second piece that would attach to the rail and to the wall. I watched with amazement as he masterfully manipulated his table saw, running his fingers dreadfully close to the blade. I took comfort figuring that, if he still had all of his fingers after all these years using a table saw like that, then I'll probably be OK too.

During those two hours I learned many of Bill's stories, including how he went from teaching high school in Compton to living his retirement on the Peninsula of Long Beach (in a word, laundromats). He also told me a story that has really shaped my thinking in business and wood working. He said that he once built a table for a gal, and wanted to use a highly figured slab of wood with a large knot in the middle. He thought she might not like it, but he loved it, so he proceeded anyway. He delivered it just in time for a party, and she immediately showed her displeasure, saying that she would not accept the table with that large knot. Bill told her to just leave it out for the party with the knot exposed and see what her guests had to say about it. The next day she called and apologized, and said that she'd never received so many compliments on a piece of furniture.

Bill gave me a large stockpile of solid walnut that day, and told me that there was more where that came from. Apparently it had been sitting in a storage unit, left over from his days of carpentry. He also mentioned that he had some wood working magazines that he would like to give me. I also got to know Bill's wife Sally this day, and experienced a great warmth that filled their home. I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness they showered on me.

I spoke to Bill one more time after this. I called him to see if he was done with staining and finishing the rail (something he wanted to do himself) and if he was ready for me to help him install it. He had already gotten a neighbor to help him install it, but told me that it really looked great and that he was very happy with it, and that I needed to come see it. It was shortly after this that I heard from Nate that Bill had passed away. I was deeply saddened, but also deeply grateful for the time I had been able to spend with him.

A few weeks later I got a call from Sally. She was beginning to go through some of Bill's things, and she had an enormous stack of woodworking magazines that Bill had set aside for me. Apparently, he had begun to go through them, photocopying the articles that he thought he might want to reference again so that he could pass the magazines on to me. I went over and met Sally to receive the magazines, and couldn't believe what a cache it was, and even more so the fact that Bill had so thoughtfully set them aside for me like that. Many months went by and, on a few occasions, I found my mind wandering to Bill and those great two hours we spent together, and remembering what a tremendous gift that stockpile of walnut was. I had used it for a number of projects, and had very little left. "There's more where that came from" was a phrase I heard in my thoughts once or twice. Then, this December, I descended one day into the basement (where my wood shop is) and noticed from a distance something highly unusual. I saw as I approached that next to my shop's door lay an enormous amount of walnut, delivered from Sally to Nate to my shop, with a Christmas card from Sally, signed from Bill. It was incredibly moving and a huge lift to my spirits at a time when I really needed it.

I never thought a handrail could be such an incredible project.

Cutting Boards and Picture Frames

2011-01-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

I had a few days in December with no orders to fill so I decided to build some Christmas presents. I used scraps that were lying around the shop to build these cutting boards and picture frames. The cutting boards feature 6 species of wood: walnut, birch, maple, pecan/hickory, rosewood, and cherry.

Hing's Bed

2010-12-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

This bed was designed by Hing Yeung, shoe designer by trade but designer of space and furniture on the side. Hing found me through Craigslist I think, I can't remember now for sure, and convinced me to build this bed for him, which required the drilling of some 2000 holes or so. It was by far the most challenging project I've taken on yet. One of the biggest challenges was figuring how to build it in such a way that it could be taken apart, since Hing's loft lacks a cargo elevator, and not show any fasteners. All of the fasteners (screws) are inside, and must be fastened while lying on one's back, reaching under the inner frame. Putting it together is hardly an exercise in elegance, but the finished product is pretty striking. It's now a part of Hing's incredible loft in downtown Long Beach.

Thanks to John Douglas, who took all of the pictures of me working on the bed, and Chad Cress, who took all of the really good pictures of the bed in Hing's loft.

More Stools

2010-12-18T13:57:00.001-08:00

I had some downtime and built some more child step stools. I used two different approaches- the first one here is like the last, with hidden mortise and tenon joints. The second employed dovetail joints. The first one has some particularly incredible wood.

Rosewood Bed

2010-12-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

This bed is notable because it's in rosewood, which I had previously never used before and which looks really gorgeous, and because it ended up in this incredible loft in Los Angeles. Also, I used a mortise and tenon on each corner, which really locked the whole thing together, made it easier to assemble, and relieved the metal brackets of some of the workload, I think.
Note Luke, my son and bed installation assistant extraordinaire, in the foreground.

Snack Tables

2010-09-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

These are some snack/painting tables that I built for my son Luke's school. The top is plywood with birch veneer with solid birch around the edges, everything else is solid birch. They are oiled and coated with polyurathane. I lucked out on the tops- there is some really interesting grain. Luke was really disappointed that I didn't paint these bright colors, like the old tables that they replaced (as a side note, I'm pretty sure that the old tables were there when I went to this preschool). His teacher was thrilled though, and she bought clear table cloths so that the grain could be seen while the kids eat their snacks.

More Storage Beds

2010-09-04T22:43:00.001-07:00

For some reason, I've built a lot of beds, and specifically storage beds, over the past year. Maybe it's because there were no queen beds in the hey day of the danish modern movement. Maybe it's because that's what I started selling in the first place. Maybe it's because an expanding cost of living means more people are living in smaller homes and more in need of storage under their beds. Either way, here are a couple more that I've built over the past few months.
This bed was built for Mimi and Susan, who live in Oakland. They saw a bed like this one on Lush Pad (www.lushpad.com) and asked me to build one in a full, since their place is quite small. I didn't want to deal with shipping a bed to Oakland and they didn't want to deal with the shipping price, but then a free trip to Northern California thanks to my appearance on the Wheel of Fortune paved the way for a delivery stop in Oakland. This is the first time I used a dovetail joint on the drawers, and it turned out pretty stunning- this is undoubtedly the wave of the Pete Deeble future.
I built this bed for Nathan and his wife Mary, who heard about me from someone who had bought a bed off me about a year ago. This is nothing new design-wise but did feature some incredible, striking wood grain. Specifically, the headboard had the most captivating grain movement of any headboard I've used yet (sadly, I did not take a close-up), and the drawer on the right night stand (pictured above) had a great natural hole. Nathan and Mary use a very high mattress, so that influenced the final look in a different, cool way.

Bunk Beds

2010-08-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

After months of talking about it, I finally built bunk beds for Luke and Graham. The lighter wood is maple, the dark wood is walnut. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out, except that the mattresses are higher than I thought, and essentially hide the headboard on the top bunk. Also, Jana hates the sheets that Luke picked out because she says they're too bright and loud (she liked them OK until she unwrapped them and, as she claims, they took on at least 2 new degrees of neon). She's probably right, but Luke's enthusiasm about the whole set up is pretty intense and nothing that I'd want to tamper with. I'm also a bit concerned with the fan being so close to Luke's head- maybe we'll take it out and put it in another room.

Step Stool

2010-08-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

I built this step stool for my friend Oscar. It turned out really great! It's built from solid walnut, with a polyurethane finish.

2 New Bed Designs

2010-07-23T08:04:00.001-07:00

This first bed was built for Soseh, a punk rocker in Silver Lake who shares a last name with a very notorious man. She asked me to build her a bed with a huge headboard and lots of knots and interesting grain pattern. I had dreamed up this design for the legs some time ago, and was waiting for an opportunity to put it to use, so I figured this was a good chance. I couldn't be happier with the way my leg design worked with the enormous headboard.
This second bed I built for my friend Josh, who recently accepted a senior pastor position at a church in New Mexico. Like Soseh, Josh gave me a lot of room- complete freedom in fact- to do what I wanted with the design. So I again used the leg design I had been sitting on and used a more typical headboard, but created some interest with the posts supporting it. I like that these posts echo the curve of the legs, bringing a certain cohesion to the design.

booster seat

2010-07-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

This is another booster seat that I built for Oscar. Oscar is the son of Vanessa and James, a really cool couple in Silver Lake that bought a storage bed from me. It's the same design as the teak booster seat elsewhere on this blog, except way better. This is solid walnut, with mortise and tenon joinery, and a clear coat that really makes the wood pop. This one was difficult to hand over because it just kicks so much ass. One of these days, I'm going to build 10 of these at once and drive them around to different boutiques because like I said before, they could be the next big thing I think.

New Design

2010-07-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

I finally finished building night stands for Jana and I, more than a year since I built the bed. I'm kind of glad I waited though, because this design is completely different from what I would have done a year ago. I think I was subconsciously inspired by James Krenov, since I've been reading "A Cabinetmakers Notebook," his seminal work on wood and all things zen. Since the cabinet was to sit 8 1/2 inches above the ground, I felt that the legs had to have a little more elegance, or interest anyway, since visually they comprise a big part of the piece. These softly curved legs is what I came up with.

I'm particularly happy with the pull on the drawers- it's gently indented on the top and bottom to give a nice grip for a thumb and forefinger. In the future I'll need to find a router bit that will do this shaping for me, but this time it came down to a chisel and a pipe wrapped in sandpaper and a lot of sweat and sore hands.

The wood has a lot of natural interest. I really like this knot on the top surface here.

I continued with my recent foray into mortise and tenon joinery with these- all joints are formed in this manner. I also took my first shot at dovetails on the drawers. I've got a few kinks to work out, but basically I'm really happy with the result.

I'm very pleased with the overall cohesion of the night stands and bed together.

Marina Del Rey

2010-05-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

I just got some pictures from Josh and Rafi, A.K.A. Form Los Angeles (see link in below post). They bought the bedroom set that I built a few months ago, and I was honored for it to be included in a condo in Marina Del Rey, right on the water, surrounded by really amazing pieces, all of which were much more expensive than my bed I'm sure. They also commissioned me to build a patio coffee table and a side table that they designed.
They initially wanted the coffee table to be built from teak, but that turned out to be too cost prohibitive. We settled on clear redwood with a clear oil finish and polyurethane. My friend Tom helped me with the polyurethane, which was enormously helpful. I'm not sure on the source of the design- I just copied a picture that Josh and Rafi provided. I'd have to say that it turned into a really good copy though.
The glass side table caused me much frustration, as mentioned in the below post. To make a long story short, the first piece of glass cracked, the second had holes drilled too small, and I ended up with just a couple hours to get the third piece of glass in place and get everything finished to meet the deadline. All of this resulted in a piece that was not everything I had hoped (likewise for Josh and Rafi) but it still looks pretty freaking hot.

Lately

2010-05-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy working on different projects, but have failed miserably to take pictures, thus I haven't had any posts for some time. In March I met Josh and Rafi, who collectively are Form Los Angeles. They are interior decorators, and they rock. They bought the bed in the previous post, and commissioned me to build a patio coffee table that turned out rad and a side table that was an incredible design but turned into an exercise in frustration for me for a few different reasons, though it still looked amazing when it was finished. Sadly, I failed to take pictures of either of these.

Following that, I built a king bed for this great couple in Silver Lake. The bed has six drawers- three on each side. It more or less follows the same basic design as before, but features a different approach on the drawers, and a different style pull on the drawers. Also, I stepped up my game on the finishing big time. I sanded to 220 grit, oiled, waxed, sanded with 320, and waxed again. The final result was stunning wood beauty.

Following this, I started building another storage bed for a customer in Boston. I just finished it, and it looks incredible, though I now need to figure it out how to get it to Boston, which will be a whole new challenge.

It's basically the same design as before, except I modified the manner in which the night stands attach to the bed. Two long bolts protrude from each bridge piece, extending into the bed and out the other side, where a nut tightens down, fixing the night stand to the bed in a highly secure manner, but also in such a way that the night stands will be easy to take off and put back on for the customer. Also, the finish has the extra touch once again, and I used a new joint style for the drawers, which turned out great. This bed is in cherry with a clear oil, which I think looks incredible.

Storage Bed with attached Night Stands

2010-01-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

The evolution continues...here, I built another storage bed, but corrected a problem I recognized the last time I built this bed and sold it with a set of night stands. Namely, if the night stands are next to the bed, you can't open the rear drawer. So here the night stands rest on one leg, placed just behind the rear-most drawer guide, thus allowing the drawer to slide right under the night stand. My friend Nate came up with the shape of the leg (thanks Nate!). Ryan took the pictures (there's a link to his site somewhere down the page here.

Bowl

2009-12-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

This was a gift for some close family friends. I thought it would be really simple to glue some boards together and throw them on my lathe and make a bowl. I had never actually used my lathe before. To make a long story short, it was a lot more work and time than I had predicted and the final product is not quite what I had envisioned when I was starting out, but it still turned out really nice, all things considered. I learned that the keys to making a bowl are as follows: 1) don't make it too deep. 2) Sharpen your chisels constantly. 3) Accept that you will waste a lot of wood, and don't waste your time trying to save the wood in the middle. 4) Buy a shorter tool rest. 5) Spend a long time with your gritty sandpaper before moving on to the finer grits. 6) Keep going all the way to 400 grit- it will start to look like glass. Next time I'm going to see if I can track down anything finer- do they make 1000 grit sandpaper? Would that just be printer paper basically?

The light wood is Ikea butcher block, left over from when we replaced the counters in our condo's kitchen four years ago. I think it's birch, but my dad thought it was maple, so I'm not sure, but it seemed too soft and pliable for maple in my opinion. The dark wood is walnut that my friend and former furniture builder Bill found in one of his storage units somewhere and gave to me (does that count as salvaged, reclaimed, green, etc.?).

Thanks to my dad who came over to the shop to redirect my efforts every time I got stuck or frustrated, and thanks to Caleb for explaining to me that I was doing it all wrong and completely straightening me out, and for actually working on it for a little while. Thanks Lou for the great pictures!

Wall Unit

2009-12-20T18:14:00.000-08:00

This wall unit was commissioned by a really cool gal named Jaina in Eagle Rock who previously bought a bedroom set from me. She designed it, but I like to think of it as somewhat of a joint design, since the final product had many similar design elements to the one I designed for Jana (my wife) and I. I used this sweet wood that I'd never used before called Pecan Hickory.
I also used a biscuit joiner for the first time, which was super smooth (thanks for loaning me your biscuit joiner Ivan!), though it did make for an interesting challenge when I glued the final side to the rest of the unit- I used 16 clamps, and I was really 4 short of what I needed.

Once the unit was affixed to the wall I built a pedestal type foot to support it so that it rests about 8 inches off the ground. We originally decided on this because of a floor heater right underneath the corner of the unit, figuring that we should lift it up to avoid fire hazard. But I actually think the foot ended up adding a nice additional element to the look. Once it was installed I used a clear oil to finish it so that the light wood would have a nice contrast with the dark floors. Jaina took all of these great pictures (except for the two in my shop, which are decidedly less awesome)- thanks Jaina!

Storage Bed

2009-10-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

This bed was inspired by the many laments I heard about my previous bed that, as great as it was, it would be so much better if it had storage underneath. After months of brainstorming ways to add drawers without tampering with the basic design of the bed, I came up with this design.

Basically, when the drawers slide completely out, it's the exact same bed as before. When the drawers are in, they are hardly noticed, and since they are made from solid walnut like the rest of the bed, if they do get seen it's all good. The drawers slide both ways and slide completely out for cleaning.
My wife Jana still prefers all of the open space under our bed, but I think (and hope) that a lot more people are going to jump for the storage. We'll find out.

Thanks to Ryan for taking these great pictures for me- what a difference a real photographer can make.

Bedroom Set

2009-09-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

I built this same bed for Jana and I when she suggested that I should build her a bed, and that it should look like this. It was a natural progression then to start thinking about building night stands, though there was a lot more involved with them than I had imagined. Primarily, they took a lot longer than I anticipated because they required jointing numerous walnut boards to reach the desired depth- something I'd never done before.

I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out though, especially the sliding mechanism on the drawers, which consist of dado grooves on each side of the drawer and two guiding blocks that the grooves slip onto.

I built these to sell with the bed as a set, to raise some much needed summer funds (figuring that I'd build a set for us in the near future), but when we got one in our room to take a couple pictures for Craigslist, we immediately saw that it was going to be no easy task parting with them.

I was tipped off yesterday to a very cool website called Apartment Therapy (thanks Cayenne!) who apparently liked my work and added it to their front page. Check it out here.

Update: In addition to telling me about Apartment Therapy, Cayenne also bought this bed and wrote about it on her blog. Check it out here.

Wall Unit

2009-09-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

This project was born out of need- a sprawling record collection threatening to take over our small living room. The records used to sit in an IKEA bookshelf that only used about half this wall space while the rest of the wall sat unemployed. I realize that you need calming dead space here and there, but it was a luxury we could not afford here. The metal posts were Nate's idea- a last minute call that added so much. I actually wish I would have used the poles in at least one more place, but whatever. The wood is all teak-veneered plywood with an oil finish, all joints are dado and glue (no screws, except to anchor it to the wall). Functionally speaking, this piece is worth its weight in gold, as it houses the records with room to grow and doubles as Luke and Graham's toy hub. We are running out of room for books though, so we'll probably have to revisit this situation before too long.

Book Shelf Wall

2009-09-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Eric asked me to help him build a wall to separate his garage into two parts: one for storage and one for an office. Knowing Eric's love for books and recognizing his need for book storage, I suggested we build a wall that would actually be a book shelf. The pictures show the result.
I took the quick and dirty approach on this- no dado, no glue, no sanding, no finish- just a bunch of pine, a square, a level, a chop saw, a nail gun, and two days to get it done. I think it's really Eric's imposing book collection that makes this thing pop, but given the constraints of the job I'm super happy with the way it turned out.

Speaker Shelf

2009-09-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

I saw some shelves like this at my friend Brian's house, which doubled at the time as a funky furniture store. He wanted $30 for 4 of them I think, but I only wanted one and he didn't want to break up his set, so I used some leftover teak veneered plywood to build one myself. It was meant to be a stand for a rear speaker, but Jana has decided that she likes it better for now as a candle stand, at least until I build another one for the speaker on the other side of the couch (which I thought worked well on the end table over there, but Jana disagrees on this now).

Booster Seat

2009-09-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

This might not look like much, but I think it could actually be the next big thing. Anyone who has kids and a bit of modern pretension has encountered the problem that there is only one type of booster seat on the market- plastic, primary colored crap. I'm sure that 99 out of 100 parents couldn't care less, but for that other 1% there's a real dilemma. That's where this teak booster seat could fill a real void I think. I tried to tell IKEA about it but apparently they don't accept product submissions. Too bad- they don't carry any booster seat at all, and they could probably produce something that looks just like this with their cheap, wall-paper wrapped fiber board for about $5.00 a chair and sell them for $30- a real win win for everyone. So I'm debating whether I should start pumping these out and craigslisting them, or ebay, or what. I'm also concerned about all of the child product regulations I could probably get sued for, so I'm just not sure what to do with my brilliant idea.

Entertainment Cabinent/Credenza

2009-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

This project was my first attempt at mid century modern style furniture. We wanted a cabinet that was about a foot higher than a typical credenza because it was covering a hot-water heater closet, but we also couldn't go with a wall unit because we needed wall space for a projector screen above it (of course, I use the word "needed" quite loosely). We found a few items that were kind of in the ball park of what we wanted, but nothing that was quite right or anywhere near a reasonable price. Thus, after some convincing with my wife Jana (this was my first attempt at a project of this scale), I set about creating something that, as far as I'm aware, doesn't really exist- a mid century styled entertainment center, or a really high credenza with sliding doors and two drawers.

As my skills have improved, I've found more and more details that I wish I would have treated differently and flaws that could have easily been avoided. In truth though, this piece turned out way better than it had any right to be, and we still love it. It is constructed from 3/4 inch teak veneer plywood with solid teak legs. All joints are dado and glue except for the legs, which are screwed to the unit with wood plugs hiding the screw heads. This piece and the wall unit both made it onto the Dwell.com "show your space" site, for whatever that's worth. I tried to find a link but apparently Dwell doesn't do "show your space" anymore, so I'm guessing it's not there anymore.

Sunday School Shelves

2009-08-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

I built these for one of the Sunday school rooms at my church. The idea is for the shelves to house learning manipulatives, and for doors to slide into place to hide the items when not in use.

I used birch-veneered plywood for the bulk of the structure and solid birch for the face. The joints are dado and glue- no nails were used, except to secure the melamine to the back. They're finished with a sealer and polyurethane.