We’ve been receiving some inspiration from some of our friends lately. Sam had almost finished Apothecary #3, and was contemplating the next piece of furniture.

I had been opening up recently to friends and family about Sam’s new endeavor, and one of my BFFs from high school sent me a bunch of pics of furniture; mostly mid century modern. I showed Sam a few pics, and he told me: “Tell Nick thanks a lot. He’s spot on.”

Sam had a couple pieces of oak barn wood cladding, which had been shaved off of each side of one board, so they were book matched. The design for this one was going to be the two book matched pieces, layed up next to each other with a continuous waterfall. (This means one board is used, and is mitre cut on the edges so you can see the grain and patterns of the wood continue from the side to the top, and down to the other side.)

Same board, both sides. You can see the old nail holes, and how they match up when you place them together.

The drawer fronts, before cleaning and sanding.

Here are the backs of the pieces:

Sam ended up using the longer pieces for this waterfall effect.

He was contemplating using this side for the waterfall, but went with the front side instead… he strengthened some of the weak spots, and ran them through the planar, and oh man! The colors that were coming through! It looked more calico with some red and white blending together.

Then they were layed up on some 1/4 oak veneer, and mitred to fit together.

Now for the nosing; there were a few spots that needed some strengthening, and Sam fixed this piece right up. But somewhere in the process, the nosing received a chip out (top piece)

So Sam used another piece of wood with similar characteristics to replace this chip out: (Check out how we fixed this piece in How to Fix Damaged Wood)

These clamps are some of our favorites, purchased at Harbor Freight.

Chip out fixed!

Then came the fancy leather drawer boxes. Sam cut the drawer bottoms down to size, and attached the leather with contact cement. After drying, he flipped them over and used a razor blade to cut around the edges.

After that, it was time to mill down the box sides. Believe it or not, the boxes are the most time consuming step!

Using our new planer, they are milled down to thickness, and are stained using our favorite dark walnut stain:

then using the table saw, there is a corner notched out on the box sides so the box bottoms will fit inset as a drawer. This way, you can’t see where the box is attached on the sides when you pull the drawer out; and the last step is to attach the boxes to the bottoms, and the drawer face to the box. Check our that leather bottom!

The next step is to install the drawer runners and supports:

And would you look at that? This Midcentury Modern Cowboy is almost complete! Before waxing:

And of course, we used our favorite bees wax:

And after the waxing, the legs were attached.

Right when we were about to start installing the pulls, Sam saw the cabinet in a new light. “Erika, come sit right here, just where I was.” And I did. What I saw was beyond stunning:

Unfortunately this picture does not do it justice. There are hundreds of colors on this piece, all blending and folding together. We took a step back and amazement. Think of all the cowboys that walked through the barn that this wood came off of. All of the stormy nights that this wood protected animals from Mother Nature. It really sings to my heart.

And the waterfall…

And Sam elaborated on how he received this wood; while he was working at a cabinet shop, they brought in this wood, sliced off a quarter inch from the front and back, and used the heart wood for their customer. These four book matched boards were trash. And he bought them.

Here is the finished product:

All four boards that grew together on their tree, that were cut down and used to build a barn and protect animals for years, had finally made their way to Sam’s hands and evolved into their next stage of life; my new dresser.

This piece is replacing an old dresser in our bedroom (Which will now be painted and flipped!)

And it gets even better; leather lined drawers!

I’m in love!

On to the next…

With Love, Erika Nora

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