Todd’s Kitchen Cupboard

This was my first piece of furniture! My wife requested it since our kitchen space is limited. Luckily she was patient because it took over a year to complete. The wood is cherry that grew at my parent’s house. Poplar was used as a secondary wood.

I took aspects from many magazine articles for the design. However, I learned a lot about designing not just for appearance, but also for ease of construction/joint fitting/glue up. The joinery is mainly tenon and mortise. The drawers are hand cut half dovetails.

The Finish process was a little involved. I mixed hand planing, card scraping and sandpaper (220 grit). I wanted to minimize blotching so I started with a shellac wash coat and sanded that with 320 grit, then a thin coat of BLO. However, I wanted the piece to match a mirror I had already made, so I followed up with several coats of garnet Shellac. Mostly this was padded on, but the top I did a french polish for depth. Since this is for the kitchen, I wiped 4 coats of thinned polyurethane.

Overall it was a great project. I was very pleased with the joinery, especially the dovetails. I had never attempted to do them before. Of coarse I practiced on scrap before hand.

Although it took over a year to make, I finished just in time. I completed it a few days before my wife gave birth to our first child.