factor it in. If making your spice rack out of zebrawood means your material costs would be $100 instead of $20 for maple, ask yourself if the benefit is worth the extra cost. But be sure to consider the impact, if any, the species choice will have on the longevity of the product. If the zebrawood spice rack will last 50 years and the maple only three, which one is the better bargain? The old tool-buyer’s saw “Buy the best tool you can afford” can easily be applied to wood selection.
Another factor that should influence your wood species choices is the desire to match the piece you plan to build with the wood found in other furniture pieces and trim that will be in the same room. Before purchasing all your stock, get a sample of the lumber so you can see what it looks like with finish applied. Compare the sample to wood you’re trying to match.
Make concept drawings. They don’t need to be as pretty as the concept sketches shown above, but making a few drawings that capture the gist of the project will get the project-design ball rolling.
American Farm
Typical features: Elaborate “pressed” backrest with relief design, heavily beaded turned legs and spindles, caned seats.
Country
Typical features: Overall rustic appearance (although often achieved with complex construction methods).
Queen Anne
Typical features: Cabriole legs, upholstered seat, curved back legs with decorative center slat, spindle-turned spreaders.
The Essentials of Style
“Style” is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to woodworking. Borrowing from a particular furniture style is a good way to ensure that your project design will work out, but paying too much attention to the period of a piece can limit your creativity and even cause you to lose sight of the most basic goal: creating a nice furnishing for your home. But as you work through the basic questions you need to answer when starting to develop a project plan, it is still a good idea to take style into consideration—especially if the piece you build will coexist with other furnishings of a definite style.
Another good reason to consider style is that it can help you make some initial decisions about the difficulty of the project you want to attempt. If you’re a beginning woodworker, for example, you should consider some of the easier to build styles such as Mission, Shaker, country, contemporary, and modern. They tend to incorporate simple shapes with less complex construction techniques, and rely more on relative proportions to achieve their appearance than they do on complex details. This is not to say that these styles are not for more advanced woodworkers, since some pieces made in these styles can be very complex. It’s just that these styles are easy to simplify using modern woodworking techniques, thereby eliminating some or most of the complex joinery. More complex and detailed styles, such as early American, Victorian, classic, traditional, Queen Anne, and gothic, should not necessarily be ruled out from the outset. Making your piece using one of these styles may be challenging, but could also be very rewarding.
The photographs on these two pages give a good illustration of the effect style has on the appearance of a piece of furniture. By comparing and contrasting the characteristics of each of the nine chairs shown, you’ll get a fair idea of which features define each particular style type. Although some of the elements are unique to chairs, look for details you find appealing and, if you’re interested in tackling a period woodworking project, use the information as a starting point for investigating a little deeper into the style you like.
Folding Chairs
Typical features: Hinged legs and seat to fold flat, often slat-built, not technically a design “style” but still a good option.
Danish Modern
Typical features: Spare, open design, graceful curves, strong horizontal lines, often built with teak and dark non-wood accents.
Contemporary
Typical features: Irregular shapes, parts made from laminated sheet goods, no ornate detailing.
Windsor
Typical features: Arched back frame with spindle infills, scooped seats, splayed legs connected by spindle spreaders.
Shaker
Typical features: High backs, round or tapered legs, woven seats, simple and graceful appearance.
Mission
Typical features: Simple, square joints, narrower slats and spreaders, mortise-and-tenon joints, usually quartersawn oak.
The wood movement factor
One of the very first pieces I built was a solid oak coffee table that I made for my brother and sister-in-law. I was a novice woodworker way back then, and I didn’t know much about wood movement. I built the piece in the summertime using a design that defied the laws of wood movement. I delivered it and they were happy. Six months later, in the middle of winter, I got a call from my brother. He said: “The strangest thing happened last night. We heard this big bang. I went downstairs and found the coffee table you built us had exploded and was lying on the floor in pieces.” I haven’t made that mistake again.
~ Bruce Kieffer
Veneer
Making your own veneered panels is a great alternative to using manufactured plywood. Using veneer allows you to apply thin solid wood edgings to particleboard cores, and then apply the veneer on top of that construction. With the edging strip under the veneer, you get the look of a solid wood panel, but with a stable construction like plywood provides. Plus, using veneer gives you the opportunity to really get your creative juices flowing with all the different ways you can match the veneer sheets together. Using it is an option you should consider if you’re a moderately experienced woodworker and you want total control of the finished look of the project you plan to build. There are many good books available that can teach you how to make veneered panels if this technique is new to you. By veneering your own panels, you can also make “custom” sheet goods with unusual or exotic faces not found in lumber yards or building centers.
Exotic and distinctive veneer types include: (A) Zebrawood; (B) Birdseye maple; (C) African Padauk (vermillion); (D) Madrone burl; (E) Maple burl; (F) Purpleheart. All shown with oil finish.
Outdoor projects require rot-resistant lumber, like the cedar being used to build the planter above. The species of wood you’ll use can impact the longevity of your project.
Solid wood, plywood or veneer? Will you use only solid lumber, or a combination of solid lumber and hardwood plywood, or even make your own veneered panels? Once again, this decision is most often dictated by the style you’ve chosen. Sleek modern styled projects almost always are built using plywood with solid wood edgings. This is because of the necessity to