Padauk and Maple Nightstand - Red and White

[Art Mulder]

Shaker(ish) style nightstand in African Padauk and Maple


Recently completed this for my wife. The top and drawer fronts are African Padauk. The rest of the body is hard maple. Yes, the colour is all natural.


But yes, the colour will change over time.
More details, including some sketchup diagrams with dimensions are on my website.


I saved expensive wood by just laminating a thin 1/4” veneer on the front of the drawers.



Used a new finish - Minwax oil-modified waterbased poly. Nice stuff, levelled very nicely with almost no bubbles. Not sure how it can be both oil-modified AND waterbased





Finished shots

[Lee Schierer]

Nice color and contrast. Tell us more, what finish did you use?

[Mel Fulks]

I like shaker style ....love bright color! Nice! And I know the shakers are glad for updated image.

[Barry Dima]

Incredibly stunning color combination.

[Jon Grider]

Nice contrast between the Padauk and Maple. Well done, I'm sure your wife loves it.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Very nice. I like the design & woods you used...I'll have to file that away for a future project...

[Art Mulder]

Nice color and contrast. Tell us more, what finish did you use?

A new one (for me) that my brother told me about: Minwax oil-modified waterbased polyurethane. That's all. The oil is to (I think) give it a bit of amber that we like to see, but it is still waterbased so we can do water cleanup. I was really impressed with how well it levelled -- way fewer bubbles than I usually get with poly.

Very nice. I like the design & woods you used...I'll have to file that away for a future project...

Just be prepared for colour change over time, Jay. You can try using a uv-resistant finish, and keeping the piece out of the sun, but it will still darken with age. Enjoy the red colour while it lasts.

[Jim Becker]

Really lovely, both in physical design and contrast. Bravo!

The nightstands I built a few years ago for our MBR are curly maple and purple heart and I was shooting for a similar contrasting look.

The finish you mention is likely part of a growing trend to address the VOC situation while maintaining the look and some other characteristics that come from traditional oil-based finishes. By using water as a carrier (water borne), they can reduce VOC substantially...extremely low odor, too. They do this by emulsifying the oil-based finish "base" in that water carrier and skip the volatiles that were necessary to provide viscosity control.