Furniture Design Ideas

T here are several ways to install a bot­tom on a frame-and-panel case. One method that is popular among cabinet­makers calls for grooves along the inside faces of the bottom rails and the stiles prior to gluing up the individual frame- and-panel assemblies. The grooves can be made with a dado head on the table […]

W ith a few variations, you can repeat the procedures shown on pages 57 and 58 to join individual frame-and – panel assemblies into a piece of furniture. A single frame and panel make up the back of a small cabinet. The front is put together in roughly the same way using mortise-and-tenon joints. On […]

Tightening the clamps Lay two bar clamps on the work surface and place the glued-up assembly face down on them, aligning the rails with the bars. To keep the clamps from falling over, prop them up in notched wood blocks. Place clamping blocks between the stiles and the jaws of the clamps to avoid mar­ring […]

Panels to fit inside your frames can be made of either plywood or edge – glued boards (page 20). To ensure that a panel will fit snugly in the grooves on the rails and stiles, but still have a little room to move as the wood expands and con­tracts, it is made substantially thinner on […]

This section of the book examines the framing techniques for building a typical frame-and-panel case. Remem­ber, however, you need a careful design for the whole piece of furniture before you make the first cut on a project of your own. Whether you will be using the stan­dard mortise-and-tenon joint, the haunched version of that joint […]

Frame-and-panel joinery was invented about 500 years ago, probably by a frustrated medieval craftsman determined to find a bet­ter way to build cabinets than simply fixing boards together. A major drawback of wood as a building material is its tendency to warp and split. Frame-and-panel offers a solu­tion to these problems. Ever-changing moisture levels in […]

  HIDDEN ADJUSTABLE SHELF SUPPORTS 2 Making and preparing the shelving Use solid lumber, plywood or edge-glued boards (page 20) to make the shelving. Cut each shelf to the same width as the carcase panels and to a length equal to the distance between the side panels. Add edge banding to the visible edge of […]

E dge banding is the usual way of con­cealing the visible edges of plywood panels and shelves; it creates the illusion that the carcase is made exclusively of solid wood. You can choose one of two options: Commercial edge banding, shown on page 40, is available in a wide variety of wood types, colors and […]

T here are many ways of joining car­case panels together. The pages that follow will examine three of the most popular choices: dovetail, rabbet and plate joinery. As shown in the photo at right, the interlocking pins and tails of a through dovetail joint give both solidity and distinctive appearance. Cutting such a joint with […]