New Desk for Bedroom Furniture Set

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There is seldom one single need that is calling for a piece of furniture, and this situation was a good example of that.

A father’s gradeschool aged daughter needed a desk for her bedroom.  There was already a fairly new matched  bed and dresser.  Unfortunately, the furniture manufacturer did not offer a desk.

The primary needs were to match the style and coloring of the existing bed and dresser, to have room on the desk top for a lamp, computer and notebook, and to have one drawer with hanging file capability.  Secondarily, the desk had to offer long term value, by seeing the daughter through high school.

The style was copied from the dresser, and construction was fairly straightforward.  “Matching” existing furniture is a lofty and sometimes expensive goal – tooling and patterns often are unique to particular furniture lines.  However, sufficient similarity often can be achieved at a reasonable cost, even if the two pieces are only a few feet apart.  In this example, the rounded edge of the desktop was made nearly identical to the dresser top, and the drawer base matched the base of the dresser.  The privacy panel and right end were made “in the style” of the dresser.  With some sample panels, a finishing schedule was developed that was very similar to that of the bed and dresser.

With the daughter in  college, the desk is now in use by the father in his home office, increasing the long-term value.

Drawer Slips

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Quadrant drawer slip

Antique furniture drawers always involved wooden drawer sides sliding on wooden runners.  On better furniture, drawers were custom fit to their openings with even, tight gaps.  But with use, the drawer runners and bottoms of the drawer sides would wear  Eventually the wear was so great that there would no longer be even gaps around the drawer front.

 
A solution developed in England and/or France was to glue a second strip of wood to the inside bottom edge of the drawer sides.  This creates a wider bearing surface that wears more slowly.  A second advantage of drawer slips is that the drawer sides could be made more narrow, adding elegance and a sense of lightness to the drawer.  A third advantage is that the inside of the drawer has much more visual interest.  Three types of slips were used, the quadrant pictured here, a cove, and a flush with delicate scratch bead along the drawer bottom.  Sample drawers with quadrant and flush slips are maintained at my workshop if you’d like to see them first-hand.
 
It’s a mystery why furniture makers emigrating from those countries to the United States did not incorporate drawer slips in furniture made here.  I like to include them for all of the stated advantages.
 
More information on drawer slips can be found at www.stephanwoodworking.com/DrawerSlips.htm