Thursday, May 12, 2022

Walnut Floating Night Stands

Here's the latest from my shop. I've crafted a couple floating (wall-hanging) nightstands to go with the massive walnut and waterfall bubinga bed I made this past year. 



I rather enjoy the idea of floating furniture, but there is a bit of function here as well. I built under-dressers into my bed design and I wanted to have functional drawers all the way up to the headboard... that would not bash into nightstands. 

I was fortunate to source some fairly wide clear walnut from a local sawyer. 



So I got to work on the hand-cut dovetails. 



This dovetail pattern has become somewhat of a 'signature' of mine. It just pleases my eye every time. 


Using some of the remnant pieces of waterfall bubinga from the headboard seemed like the right touch for the drawer fronts. 


Now the mounting... french cleats! They're a basic gravity holding mechanism. I made these out of white oak scraps. There are matching cleats built into the back of the nightstands, reinforced with glue, dominos, etc. 


The cleats are mounted into stud with big arse Spax lag bolts. Below you can see how it 'hangs." There's even a bolt or two in the night stand cleat so nobody could ever bump the stand upward off its mount. 

Also below you'll note the power cords coming down through a little access hole. There is a power strip back there to consolidate things. 


Once mounted, and all power cords situated, we can close the little access door I created behind the bookshelf. Ain't I clever. 



Here's some finished photos to bring it home. 








It's nice waking up to fine joinery every day. It sure is. 

I'll leave you with this thought, dear ones...


"The reverence that the object maker has for the materials, for the shape, and for the miracle of his skill transcends to God, the Master Craftsman, the Creator of all things, who uses us, our hands, as His tools to make these beautiful things." - Sam Maloof



Dan Westfall

May 2022