Huntboard with Milk Paint Finish- All Finished and Delivered

This weekend I just delivered this Huntboard.  Here are a couple shots of it in place in its new home in Virginia as well as a few with a backdrop in my shop.  It looks great in place and is in good company with many other great pieces of furniture, that I did not make, however two of my Waltham Rockers are also there. (see photo below) As I mentioned in my last post, I am very happy with how the construction and the finish on this piece came out.  Upon arriving at their beautiful mountain home, I was treated to a light meal and great conversation by my generous hosts.  Meeting them and seeing where the piece would live, topped off the whole project for me.

If you have not been following this piece, the piece is made of cherry with a thin and worn black milk paint finish sealed with linseed oil, gel varnish and topped off with a coat of wax made of linseed oil and bees wax.  The drawer interiors are pine sealed with a coat of amber shellac and the back is ship-lapped poplar.  The dimensions are 72" wide, 18" deep and 38" tall. Custom sizes are always available. Read my previous postings to learn more about this piece.

 

 Below are two of my Waltham Rockers which I had made previously for the same clients.

Finishing the Huntboard- A dream come true

I had a picture in my mind of what this piece might look like when finished but if you haven't done it before, you don't know if you will achieve exactly what you are trying for.  I feel like I got it on this one.  I wanted to end up with a finish that  has a smooth, worn, warm look.  This is very hard to achieve without years of actual use.  Milk paint helps but it must be sealed with the right stuff and applied in the right way.   Usually , I am very happy to paint a piece but I was a bit worried about this one.  It looked great before painting and the cherry matched nicely so I thought that maybe it would look better without paint.  Well, I am very happy to say that the paint only made it better.  It really brings out the details like the thumbnail edge on the top and beading around the drawers and end panels.    Many would say- "Why use nice cherry if you are going to paint it?"  Well, this is why. There is no way to achieve the warmth that this piece has without the cherry coming through.   The client asked for the piece to be very "worn" looking.  This is why you see areas where the cherry is very visible.  I am very glad that they did.  It makes me want to run my hand over the edges.  If I had the time and space in my house, I would build this piece for myself.

I still need to put one more coat of finish on the top and then a coat of paste wax on the whole thing, but it is already looking great in my opinion.
I will post formal shots when it is all done.

Thanks for looking,
Tim

 

Huntboard Progress

The following are some of the final steps in the building of this substantial piece of furniture.

The shot below shows the drawer parts after the joints have been cut by hand and before assembly. Lots of sawing and chiseling to get to this point. 

I design the drawers so that the rear of the drawer will fit into the case and the front of the drawer will not quite make it.  The two drawers on the left have been pushed in tightly as far as they will go while the joints dry.  On the right, the drawers have been hand planed until they slide smoothly into the case.

The top of this piece will have a thumbnail detail.  I cut the first part , the step down, with a router. The result is shown below.

The next step is to hand plane the round-over portion of the edge detail.

Below, is the finished thumbnail detail that has also been softened with a hand plane to imitate a worn look.  This piece will have a worn milk paint finish and this worn detail is an important part of that final look.

Below are a few shots of the case with the top set in place and the drawers in place.  The knobs will not be mounted until the drawers are finished.

The next post will include shots of this piece with the milk paint finish.

Other than working on the huntboard, I have been building a set of 10 of my Waltham Arm Chairs and spending time with my kids.  Below, Claire and I enjoy a lunch at a local diner.

Time to cut the grass for the last time this year.

Tim

Huntboard or Sideboard?

My current project is this Huntboard. I call it a huntboard because it is made up of drawers suspended on legs and it  has a weightiness and elegance that brings to mind horse country and what goes with it. If you google "Huntboard", you may get varying definitions.

Below is a drawing of the piece and some shots of it going together.

stock is beaded before joints are cut since the bead becomes part of the joint.

I used to think that beading by hand would be too much work but it actually going quite fast and you have more control than using a router.  You are out of luck if a router decides to tear a chunk out of your piece of wood that you have spent so much time on making sure that it is straight and true.  Also, you can change blades to get many more bead sizes than you can with a router.  This Lie Nielson beading tool is great. Solid bronze and very smooth working.  Not cheap, but worth it.

this shows the bead continuing around the corners and also shows the pegged tenons.

seats for mortices are set into the legs the depth of the bead so that the bead can continue around the corners.

Below, are the legs and panels which are painted before assembly.  This piece will be painted with black milk paint which will be worn to create a warm look with the cherry highlights coming through.

I am now working on the drawers and top.  Gotta get back to work.  I need to deliver this piece before the end of the month.

Enjoy the rain. We really needed it.

Tim