The brief: to replace an existing chest of drawers and bedside cabinets. The new furniture would fit into the existing spaces and provide additional storage. The wood was not to be dark and soft-close drawers were requested.
We chose to replace the existing chest of drawers with a slightly larger chest of drawers. This would be flanked on either side by two taller chests of drawers with single columns of drawers. The existing bedside cabinets would be replaced by larger cabinets with drawers. They would be completed in maple with a white tint finish to retain the natural pale colour. The large chest of drawers and the two bedside cabinets would be topped with glass to prevent lotions and potions from staining the top wooden surfaces. Cabinet faces were all flush and as they would all sit on plinths rather than legs so that there was no need to consider access for cleaning underneath.
The large chest of drawers was given a 2×3 drawer configuration, the two tall chests of drawers had a 1×5 configuration and the two bedside cabinets were 1×3. The drawer fronts have finger pulls partially along their lengths.
Here are photos of a bedside cabinet with a 1×3 drawer configuration. The front rectangular face-frame has been rounded in the corners and the top and bottom drawer corners are rounded to fit. The cabinet vertical edges are all heavily rounded and the plinth, which is set back on all sides, is also rounded. Wooden birch pegs are used in the plinth to strengthen the mitred corners and provide a subtle bit of interest.
The drawer finger pulls provide lozenge shapes to the front face which echo the rounded corners in the face frame. The top is solid wood – also with rounded corners – and with a thumb profile to soften the top edges.
Here is a tall chest of drawers. The details applied to the bedside cabinets are matched. The bottom two drawers are deeper than the top three drawers.
And here is the large chest of drawers with the two sets of three drawers. The finger pulls flow from one side to the other and the drawer heights match those of the tall chests of drawers which will stand either side.
All in all, I’m very happy with the outcome. And the customer thinks they are “bloody brilliant”.
Dimensions approximately as follows:
Chest of Drawers: W 1500 x H 770 x D 500 mm
Tall Chests of Drawers: W 500 x H 1200 x D 500 mm
Bedside cabinets: W 750 x H 600 x D 400 mm
