My Designs,  Woodworking

The “Snipe” Sideboard

My “Snipe” sideboard. This continues the design cues from the “Snipe” filing cabinet with a heavily chamfered carcass, cut-away drawer pulls, walnut splines and pegs, and adds asymmetric freeform slatted doors with offset handles. Everyone in the workshop loved it. 😊 Happy maker, happy customer. 😍

Snipe sideboard in olive ash showing door with freeform ash slats and offset cut-out handles.
Top view of Snipe sideboard showing walnut bowtie detail.

Within the grain patterns on the top surface I can see a spaceship floating above the giant storm clouds of a gas giant, a neutron star with jets of energy being ejected, the black accretion disk of a forming solar system and the shadow of a moon on the surface of the planet. Most other people just see a walnut dowel and bow-tie.

These walnut pegs and bow-ties are structural – the pairs of pegs on the side fasten the horizontal rail below the drawers and the top and bottom pegs fasten the central divider. There are two bow-ties – the one on the top helps stabilise the big knot whilst the one in the side was needed to stabilise a shake in the side panel.

Snipe sideboard with doors open

The curves for the door slats were sketched freehand. The first cut was made using the bandsaw and sanded smooth. This was transferred to the second piece by tracing the curve using a flush router bit. The curve on the other side of the slat was then cut using the bandsaw, and this was transferred to a third piece using a router bit, and so on.

Dimensions are approx. 760 mm high x 480 mm deep x 1120 mm wide. The top drawers are the same height as those of the filing cabinet. The shelves are removable and currently are a fixed height.

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