A friend who was charmed by a chest she saw at an auction that had a different kind of finish on each drawer face inspired me to make this produce chest (for kitchen use for potatoes, onions, etc.) for her. Since it's pretty jovial in look and for informal use I thought I would experiment with some techniques as, if it turned out badly, it wouldn't be such a catastrophe.
Some turned out OK and some not so good. Among other things I have to call it "rustic" because the ebony stain sort of turned whitish because I made a rookie mistake. As the stain needed to be quite dark, I tried dye for the first time. My mistake was that I mixed it using water instead of alcohol and then overcoated with lacquer. This caused a whitening similar to a wet glass being put on a lacquer-finished table. It's not too bad, though, because it's turned in a rather uniform manner, only in the open grain.
Produce Chest 037.jpg. Produce Chest - top.jpg
I also tried an experimental drawer-centering technique using packaging straps :
Produce Chest - drawer detail.jpg Produce Chest - bottom detail #2.jpg
The chest is made of cherry, maple and ebony-dyed red oak with persimmon drawers.