Hall Bench

I was recently commissioned to build a small bench to go in an entry way. It needed to be compatible with a small arts and crafts table which was already in the entry way. The table was made from red oak and it had a negative shape design cut into the legs. The bench is made from red oak and the negative shape from the table is repeated in the bench.

Hall Bench

This is how the bench started on one side is a quick sketch with the maximum dimensions that would fit the allotted space. On the other side is a tracing of the design from the table. If you look close you can see there are several changes from the sketch to the final piece.

Sketch

Here are the legs and the seat with the joinery cut. The seat will be attached to the legs with wedged thru tenons, the drawer supports with sliding half dove tails.

Joinery

The seat and the legs dry fit, at this point I taped a cut out of the design to the side and moved it around to find where it should go, then traced it on to the sides.

dry fit

The drawer divider and support being built.

drawer supports

Drawer divider and support dry fit. Because the front of the legs slope the support was cut oversize and planed to fit.

dry fit

Drawers being built and fit. The sides and bottoms are poplar. Caps were added to the top of the legs.

fitting drawers

Again, because the front of the piece is sloped, the dove tails are cut to match the slope and the front of the drawer will be planed to match the slope.

sloped drawer

A back board was added that extends to the bottom of the drawer support. A partial repeat of the cut out in the side was added to the back board to tie it all together.

woodworking complete

A final clean up with a card scraper and it was finished with dye, lacquer, glaze, lacquer, toner and more lacquer. The copper hardware added and done.

finished