Special Edition Baseball bed

This is a version of our popular Baseball bed that I completed on 2-6-2008. I’ve built many of these. This one, however, is a little different than our norm. It comes from our Special Edition line and I customized it a little more then normal.

On this bed, like our other baseball beds, the child get to help us customize the headboard. They fill out a form with the team names, the score, the stadium name, and their name. Usually I use authentic Louisville Slugger Signature bats, but this time the customer chose one of Louisville’s Pro Stock series called Hornsby. This is the same grade bat that the professionals use.

I then matched the wood type, which is Ash. The color was a little tricky. Ash stains out like oak. It’s easy to get the dark grain but the rest of the wood would be light. We ended up dying the wood with a brown dye and then stained it using a tweaked version of Minwax’s Red Mahogany.

All the information that the customer sent to us I had routed into the wood, but only after the finish was applied. This exposed the natural wood and made the cut sections lighter. The original plan was to paint the letters and numbers gold to match the bats, but after it was cut and loved the result of the natural ash, we decided that the gold would just cheapen the look of the bed.

This bed has a trundle and drawers under the bed and a matching nightstand.

Murphy bed Sideways Ross

This is a Murphy bed that was completed on January 26, 2008. This is a style that I build often, but this is the first sideways version. It is built in oak with 2 24” bookcases. Most of the time I keep the two sides symmetrical. This customer chose to have two different style bookcase.
See more at our website: www.wwbeds.com

Combination Loft

This is a loft that I completed on 1/24/2008. It is made from all pine and includes a desk, bookcase, chest and trundle. It also has a pass through on the back side that can be used for storage or a “club house”.

One of the large end panels I did something different. I didn’t want to use solid pine because it needed strength and I didn’t think the solid would hold up and that would have been a lot of gluing. If I used a plywood, I’d have to edge band or add trim along the edge. The edge band would be too square and the molding would have alter the design the customer saw on my original. What I did was to use a MDF core pine panel. I cut the end panels, like normal, rounded it over with a router and after it was stained and finished , the edge looked great. I got the idea from a door I saw on some cabinets a while back.

Panel Headboard and Nightstands

This is a custom headboard and couple nightstands that were built for the same customer as the “Wardrobe/Entertainment Center”. It was designed to match in style and color.

Headboard
The headboard was built with raised panels to match the style of the Wardrobe/Entertainment Center doors. I added some custom dental molding under the top lip. This is the same dental molding that I built to insert into the crown molding in the rest of the room.

Nightstand
On this nightstand, we deviated from the normal wood top, to a top that was made from Formica Solid Surface material. It gave the top had a granite look. We also used Formica laminate on a pull out drink tray above the drawers. Each of the drawers used full extension rails with birch drawer boxes. The base molding was a two piece molding, a solid square stock with a base cap on that. This matched the molding that I applied to the Wardrobe/Entertainment Center, with the exception that it was a little smaller.

The Wardrobe, nightstands, and headboard was one of the larger projects that I’ve completed on one order. I did separate it into two phases, which were separated by a week. This was to allow for carpet installation and I gave me a little breathing room.

Wardrobe/Entertainment Wall

This is a wall unit completed on December 21, 2007. It is part of a complete bedroom set that I built for this customer consisting of this wall, a bed, and two end tables. I will write about the rest at a later date.

Features
46” flat panel television and accessories in center section
Television pulls out and swivels.
4 Hanging compartments for clothes. (one has a tie rack)
18 drawers (plus 2 hidden) all with full extension rails
20 solid raised panel doors with 170 degree cancelled hinges.
Wainscot panel style end panel
Built as a built-in with a corner block to transition from our crown to their crown.
All insides are natural maple with the outsides dyed, stained, and lacquer.
Television compartment is painted black.

This was a very large project for me, especially around Christmas time. I divided these units into 5 section and then each of the sections were built as a lower drawer section and then an upper doors section. Because I used full overlay hinges on the sections, it made everything look seamless. Also to make it look like one piece I added the left wainscot panel with the left style attached after everything else was in place. Another way I tried to make it look like one piece was I seamed the crown and base together as one piece before I applied the finish to them. I left them long and fit them on site.

I made a bed and end tables about a week later to match, so keep watching for later post. More picture can be viewed at our archives at my website www.wwbeds.com

Parks Canopy

This is a bed that can be used as either a canopy bed or a standard four-poster bed. This was done by adding post extension and a canopy to the top. I made the top caps on the band saw with a coupled routed squares on the bottom. The wood of choice was both Popular and Maple.
FeaturesQueen Size convertible canopyHigh Gloss Lacquer finishFluted PostDoweled side rail connections with draw type bolts.Laminated top arch molding

This project was the first one that I used a brand new tool. It is a doweling jig from Dowelmax. The is a great tool and wished I bought one earlier. I used it everywhere. On the post/panel joint, to align and connect the lower post to the upper post and the upper post to the finale.

It also allowed me to make a much stronger side rail connection. I used three holes in each end of the side rail. Two for dowels and the center one for a machine screw. The machine screw connected to a half moon connecter that was set in a 1” hole. With the Dowelmax, I was able to perfectly align everything.

The top arch was laminated into that shape. Since I don’t have a vacuum system, I did it a little different technique. I cut the top cap into 6 1/8” strips. Put glued between each layer. Tacked it down in the center, onto the headboard (I didn’t glue the bottom layer to the headboard. I then clamped them all together with as many clamps that I had. Once it dried, I removed it and trimmed all sides. Added an edge profile and put it back on, this time with glue.

The bottom of the post was cut on the band saw and then all the post were clamped together and the coves were cut at the same time. The post were rotated 90 degrees and cut again. This was continued until all the side were hit.

Dowelmax made this project a lot easier. They are located in Canada and I believe they will send a free DVD. I would recomend this to anyone.

For more picture check out my “Current Projects” link at wwbeds.com.

Gone Live

Over the years I've been keeping my customers informed on what I've been working on by my "Current Projects" page. I post picture there and then give a little description of what I'm doing. That is if I had the time. Sometimes I would go a few days without posting any pictures, but would always catch up.

I have always wanted to show a live video of the shop, but didn't think that was possible. Until now. I've found a way to get our security camera onto our site. This is great because I can first, give my customers something fun to do.... See if you can find you furniture. It's a "Where's Waldo" type of thing. It also allows me to monitor the activity when I'm in the office or my day off. And especially it allows me to prove that I really get to work at 6:00, sometimes earlier. I'll have to move my nap time from the work bench to somewhere off camera. Not to mention removing the sawdust from my head (if you know what I mean).

It may not be the most beneficial thing, but you have to admit. It is really cool. Maybe the customers can't make out if I'm working on their furniture or something else. Even when I upgrade the camera. I'll try to keep note on the page and I'll keep up the photos. Speaking of photos did you see my new helper.

I plan on upgrading the camera system. I am using a wireless system now, which has a lot of interference. I'd like to hard wire the camera and add good quality audio. Now that would be a show. We have our own word to songs and our own dance moves too.

Let me know how you like it. Is this something that only I'm excited about? I'd like to know so send me some feedback.