Cedar drawer bottoms-- a touch of class or smelly clothing?

[Roger Marty]

I am making a (hopefully heirloom quality) dresser. I was planning on using solid drawer bottoms rather than the standby choice of baltic birch. Perhaps 3/8" to 1/2" solid cedar which I've already purchased and have been resawing.

Is this a bad idea that will lead to smelly underwear for awhile or a decent choice?

[Lee Schierer]

In my experience, unlike moth ball smell, the cedar smell does not linger in the items stored on or near cedar. We have a cedar chest which stores clothing for 6 months or more at a time and after a minute or two you can't smell anything on clothes that have been taken out.

Since you are using solid wood, be sure to account for seasonal wood movement in your drawer bottom and also account for the fact that the bottom panel will not be glued to the drawer sides, front or back.

[Walter Plummer]

We did a huge built in cedar closet one time that had drawers. The drawer boxes were cedar and the bottoms were caned.

[Sam Murdoch]

Decent - very nice choice - really, IMHO. Way better than ply - especially for a piece that will qualify as "heirloom".

[Steve Demuth]

It's a very pleasant smell, and doesn't linger long term in clothing. We store everything wool in our house in a cedar chest, and it's never been a problem. The only drawback to your plan is that cedar leaches it's protectective effect fairly quickly if it's not enclosed. A cedar chest retains the odor long term because of the very limited circulate. I'm not sure drawer bottoms will work as well.

[Lee Schierer]

The only drawback to your plan is that cedar leaches it's protectective effect fairly quickly if it's not enclosed.

The cedar smell can easily be renewed at any time with a light sanding of the surface.

[Frank Drew]

I think cedar is a great choice for clothes storage; I lined the sides and back of an armoire I was commissioned to build with it. I found some very pleasantly scented cedar of Lebanon veneer years ago, maybe from Certainly Wood up near Buffalo, and used it on some drawer bottoms.

[rudy de haas]

I'd say cedar linings generally add a touch of class and last forever. However.. be sure to use something like western red cedar and absolutely not "white cedar" - because that smells like hashish and will cause all kinds of problems when those clothes are worn someplace like an airport that has chemical sniffers installed.

I made a door several months ago that has red cedar on the outside and white on the inside - and that side still smells despite having a poly coating on it.

[roger wiegand]

I'd also do solid bottoms in a piece I was calling "heirloom", but I'd use a more neutral smelling wood than cedar. Clothes that smell of cedar remind me of my prissy great aunts. (who were lovely people whom I loved to death, but they were a piece of work!)

I've had enough clothing eaten to shreds in my folks cedar closets to believe that the alleged moth-dispelling properties of cedar are simply folklore.

[Roger Marty]

So Eastern Red Cedar would be a poor choice? I guess I'll just do an experiment and stick a piece of the Easter Red Cedar in my own drawers and see how my clothing smells.

[Scott DelPorte]

Western red cedar has a smell that always makes me think of pencils, not the more aromatic smell I associate with other cedars used in closets etc.

[Stan Calow]

Eastern red cedar is what is used in cedar chests, closets, etc. It is actually a juniper, and not the same species at all as western red cedar. ERC is what is believed to have the insect repellent properties.