Cindy & Bryan's Wood Shop
Sideboard
Our, very ambitious, 3rd project was a 7 foot sideboard to go in the dining room. We decided to go with the "farm" look so we used 2x4s and pine boards with knots. With the size and the weight of the piece, being able to take it apart was a must-have feature so we decided to go with a complete pocket hole construction. We followed plans by Ana White for this project with a few modifications.
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We purchased a table saw prior to this build so we were able to rip our own boards. We cut all the pieces and assembled the sides and started attaching the other components to the base.
The top of the piece is made using 2x4s. This piece was screwed and glued together to give it a little more strength and it would be treated as one piece. We used a stop block on a miter saw to bump each board up against so we would have the same size cut every time. This saved us a lot of time and eliminated the need to measure every board and the need to sand everything after it was assembled. Since it was screwed together, we only needed clamping pressure on the top and bottom to make sure the boards were level.
We added breadboard ends to the top for added visual interest. We also added 1x2 strips along the front to frame out the spaces for the doors and drawers. We also needed to create a bump out for the drawer runners so they would be able to slide past the frame. We also tacked base moulding to the bottom to add more decoration.
With the frames in place, we were able to start building the doors and drawers.
The door sides were constructed with 1x4 pine boards. After all of the cuts were made, we ran one side of the board over rabbeting bit on the router table to carve out a 1/4"x1/4" inset that we could drop the panel into. The sides were assembled with pocket holes and glue.
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We cut 1/4" plywood to size and then ran those over a table saw that had the blade set to cut about half the depth of the panel. This created the lines to give it the multi-board effect that match the top and sides. The panels were then glued in the pre-cut inset.
The drawers were also constructed using the 1x4 pine boards. We decided to do a floating bottom in the drawer so we started by running the sides over a router table equipped with a 1/4" straight bit and cut about 1/4" deep. Then we assembled the drawer by gluing the corners of three sides, then sliding the bottom into the slot and finally gluing the 4th side to complete the box form. We attached a false front to the drawer to hold the handle and so it would sit flush to the front of the sideboard.
With all of the components built, it was time to paint. We chose a milk paint by General Finishes in Tuscan Red. Milk paint goes on evenly and flat and it doesn't take very much to cover an area. It's more expensive than other paint, but one can goes a long way and it is easy to work with.
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After the red paint dried, we followed up by accenting the knots and crevices through the piece with Van Dyke Brown Glaze by General Finishes. The glaze acts like a stain where you cover a piece of wood and then wipe off the excess. It works great for giving something an aged effect or accenting areas like we did.
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We then finished the whole painting with an oil based Gel Topcoat. The gel top coat goes on thin and easy and a small amount covers a large area. The only drawback is the price and the wait time between coats. The durability was the reason we chose it for this project.
The hardest part of the build was installing the drawers. This was complicated because it turns out we failed to make the interior square. We had to stack washers between the runners and the walls to get our runners to work properly, but no one would ever know how off we were.
This was a tough build for beginners, but we got it done. Getting the doors and the drawers to fit was the biggest challenge because we didn't test to make sure everything was square through the build. If we did it again we would have built three separate cabinets and put them together instead of installing walls directly to the base.
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Mistakes aside, it is still one of our favorite pieces in the house and we learned a lot of techniques along the way and improved our skills tremendously. It was a huge confidence booster and amplified our excitement for future projects.