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Design without compromise: An exercise in high-end handwork. Sometimes a cup of tea is more than a cup of tea. Its surface may be still, its color translucent and its container unadorned. But in [...]

This handsome piece is simple to build and easily adapted to fit your stock. A friend asked me to design and build a table using a special piece of walnut. I was given approximate measurements, [...]

This early form – an aumbry – spawned many different types of furniture. It is easy to forget that many of our favorite pieces of furniture are recent innovations. Forms such as coffee tables, [...]

Mortise-and-tenon joinery and side-hung drawers make for a simple but impressive build. Early in my career I met an avid antiques collector whose focus was objects from the William & Mary [...]

A simple approach to a sublime design. I’ve been enamored of Greene & Greene furniture since my early days of woodworking, well before I possessed the skills to produce such a piece. Since [...]

Top this sleek design with patterned veneer – it’s much easier than it looks. All over the country, mid-century designs, with their sleek surfaces and clean lines, are turning up in high-style [...]

Stylish legs and a dapper door dress up a simple case piece – and help to deceive the eye. This design is inspired by a taper, but I needed to establish the right proportions to flesh the idea [...]

This antebellum free black man was the most successful cabinetmaker in North Carolina. My introduction to Thomas Day came in 1998 on a shopping trip to High Point, N.C., for a bed. I stumbled [...]

A modern approach to joinery yields perfect miters. Project #2009 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 days • Cost: $250 I have a definite affinity for Mid-Century furniture. There’s just [...]

This classic furniture piece offers lots of storage in a small footprint – and it’s a simple hand-tool build I need some additional storage space in my 7′ x 13′ shop, however, space [...]

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Benjamin Randolph, a Philadelphia cabinetmaker, to build a compact lap desk to serve as a portable office. This small mahogany box, now prominently [...]

The first time I encountered this table in the White Water Shaker collection, it was locked in a storeroom with more than a dozen other pieces. To my eye, there was something unusual about it. [...]