This set of fraternal twins share a Greene and Greene styling with perhaps a lighter, more contemporary visual appearance. African mahogany/walnut or maple/myrtle with ebonized walnut plugs. The first driver of form, from which both designs then followed, was the birdseye maple top, built to the dimension of stock on hand. I followed the techniques tutorial in Robert Lang’s “Shop Drawings for Greene and Greene Furniture” for the breadboard ends and plugs … but then irresponsibly designed as I went, eyeballing proportions and scratching stick figures and math on wood scraps as necessary.
Simplicity of design certainly aids this method. By choosing to emphasize the G&G touches, I kept the rest square and simple with exception of inside leg tapers and a cloud lift. Mortise and tenon apron/leg joinery is used. Drawer fronts and front apron were cut and re-assembled from single boards for grain continuity – internal Kreg screws strengthen the small glue areas of the front apron frame re-assembly. Dovetail drawers have solid bottom book-matched panels, half-lap joined with dado depth allowance in the drawer sides for expansion room. Internal poplar “struts” and drawer guides fit to top and bottom, lengthwise dadoes of front and back aprons to give strength to these flimsy looking things. To break up the plug look a bit, I used different sizes, staggered placement and also set the drawer pull plugs at 45 degree rotation to appear as diamonds rather than squares. Roundovers of 1/8” or 1/16” (drawers) on all edges. Finish is semi-gloss poly over de-waxed shellac.
Note that a turned bowl , when properly placed, adds an asymmetrical eye-candy element to lure unsuspecting victims nearer. The family critics are divided over their preference for yin or yang on this one.
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). Nice job!
