A Headboard to Complete the Suite
Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


In 2014 I built two dressers for a couple. They are made from rift sawn white oak with a very dark but not blackstain.



The next year I built two matching bedside cabinets for them.



In the interim, they moved house. One or both of the dressers were damaged by the movers. They asked if I could repair the damage (to the finish on two or three of the drawer fronts). As much as I wanted to help, I told them I didn't think I could do it w/o building new drawer fronts, and I wasn't confident I could get the finish exactly correct. I suggested they find a "furniture Dr", but didn't know of one myself. They did, and the guy did such a great job that I can't tell where the repairs were made.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and they asked if I would make a headboard to match the cabinets. Thankfully, I had kept my finish sample and all of the directions on how to do it, so I said yes.

We decided to hang the headboard on the wall instead of attaching it to the bed. I designed it so that it hangs from two sets of French cleats and with a 1/4" gap to the wall because no wall is flat. The design is shown below:



I needed a good rift sawn white oak board to slice the veneerneeded to make the main panel, but when I called the shop where I buy lumber, they said they didn't have any and wouldn't order just a small amount for me. I found one or two boards in my stash that had 6" wide sections of rift sawn grain and I was able to get just enough veneer from them to do the project. I had to veneer some of the solid stock as well to cover defects in those pieces. My white oak inventory is essentially zero at this point.

The main panel is made from 1/2" plywood veneered with 1/10" white oak on the face and maple on the back. It was 80" long, too long for my vacuum bag. Luckily, I was able to borrow an 8 ft long bag from a friend. I used 1/10" thick veneer instead of the normal 1/16" so that I could cut 1/16" deep grooves in the face to simulate the gaps between the drawers in the cabinets. Turns out, you hardly see them unless you're pretty close. This is the headboard after glue up, minus the top cap.



The joinery is typically frame and panel with a stub tenon on the ends of the rails. The panel is glued into the frame so it's very strong.



The end of the stile is a pretty good graphic of how the grain runs in rift sawn lumber. To create the finish, the wood is first sanded, then you go over it with a brass brush to open up the pores along the rift sawn grain. The stain highlights the grain when viewing it from an angle. You have to be careful not to apply the finish too thick or the grain will get filled, diminishing the effect. After the stain was applied, I sprayed it with a coat of SealCoat shellac, and then two light coats of Enduro Clear Poly in satin to which I added additional flatters to cut the sheen to almost flat.



The cleats are glued and screwed to the back at the top and bottom of the main panel. The cleats on the panel are 3/4" thick, while the ones on the wall are 1" thick, which gives the desired 1/4" gap to the wall. I used a 30 degree angle for the cleats.



Here's a closeup. The top cap was attached to the panel with biscuits and glue and a few pocket screws.



I forgot to take pictures during installation, but it went as expected. The wall was not flat, also as expected, so the planned 1/4" gap turned out to be a wise move. I had to shim both cleats on one side to get them all in plane, but that was straight forward by holding a straight edge across the cleats and shimming with standard cedar shim, then screwing the cleats tight. Careful measurement paid off and the headboard fit nearly perfectly with the first try. The cleats on one side, however, didn't engage simultaneously. The top was a little loose, but adding a few thin shims cut from the top of a yogurt container resolved that and it fits tight with no rattle. So here's what it looks like.







We were all happy with how it turned out.

John

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