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This is an easy project. At least it should be. I ran into a few complications.

My goal with this bookcase was to maximize a full sheet of 3/4" plywood. The design I came up with does just that. There is very little scrap lumber left over.

I also included room in that sheet for a simple dowel hole jig. Joining this all together with dowels creates a strong piece of furniture as well as eliminates the need for any fasteners.

To make this bookcase, just download the plans and follow the cutlist. Keep all your grain running the right way and keep track of your pieces and you will have no trouble at all. It really is that simple.

Stained?

Since I was using pine plywood, I thought it might be nice if I stained this project: something I rarely do. Typically I just apply a clear finish and let the natural color of the wood shine through. Unfortunately, I decided to try a product I have never tested: a polyurethane/stain mixture in one can. The results were disastrous. Very difficult to apply, it left ugly streaks and pools of stain. It refused to stick to the birch edge banding.

People use that stuff?

Id like to think I have a fair amount of experience at staining and finishing wood. Ive tried just about every technique there is and I knew this would be similar to applying poly, a fairly time-consuming process. I did everything the manufacturer recommends. I applied a pre-stain wood conditioner and carefully brushed it on using one the the manufacturers brushes intended for their polyurethanes. I let it dry overnight, sanded with steel wool and applied a second coat, which they also recommend. Still looked horrible.

As I was already running behind on this project, I had to make a decision to keep applying more coats (after waiting 8 hours between each) or cut my losses and just paint the bookcase. I opted for the latter. This is a product marketed as an easy one-can finish for inexperienced finishers and DIYers. I cant help but wonder how many of them became as frustrated as me and gave up ever trying to finish wood again.

Yes, paint!

Strangely, I am very happy with the way the paint turned out of this piece! It matches one of the colors in my Jetsons wall clock and fits well in my mid-century modern living room.

If you want a super-easy easy weekend project, make this bookcase with the intention of painting it. If you choose to go that route, you can eliminate the edge banding and just paint the exposed plywood edges. You can also eliminate the dowel jointery and just glue and screw it all together. Recess the screws  (or nails) and fill in the holes with paintable wood filler. You can also save money by just using MDF instead of plywood, since grain direction is irrelevant on painted pieces.

Plans

• WWMM One-sheet-of-plywood bookcase (pdf file...includes cutlist) 
• Sketchup File

*****

The photo above is from my big Matisse book and it shows 16 of the 22 photos sent by Matisse to Etta Cone, showing states in the development of Large Reclining Nude, 1935. I wish I had photographed the various stages in the finishing of this table. I wouldnt have 22 photos, but Id have a bunch....

For the first 10 years of my career as a furniture maker, I worked mostly in natural woods, cherry, walnut and figured maple, finishing them with clear oil finishes, sometimes with accents of milk paint, slowly developing what I came to think of as my studio style. Most of my customers either lived in Vermont full time or had second homes here and were content with the sort of contemporary or Shaker look that my style evoked. For the next 20 years, some of those clients and others who came my way asked me to make more formal pieces, often designed to blend in with antiques or family pieces they already owned. I found I enjoyed the new design challenge, making pieces fit with an existing environment. Its never been easy though, this coloring of wood, And, even now that Ive been doing it for a long time, its still a challenge. Just this last week, we struggled somewhat with a table for a Boston client, who, from the start, requested a formal, somewhat shiny finish for his table ...Not too shiny, but just the right shiny.... Shinys tough. If its too perfect, it can look just like an off-the-rack piece from a local furniture store, but with the right shiny combined with our method of handscraping the big flat surfaces, you can get that wonderful, waterlike surface you find most often on really fine antiques .... It takes patience, a willingness to experiment, and sometimes a certain fearlessness that you just know you have to just have at it and things will be fine. Ive stripped a few and thats never fun, but when you get one just right, well, thats really fun ... I tried to write down the process both before I started and after I finished this one, but no matter how hard you try, it wont be exactly the same next time. Make samples, in this case, include the inlays in the samples. For this table we used several coats of diluted Lockwood water based aniline dyes, occasional masking tape on the inlays, some shellac, and after many samples two coats of Minwax brush on fast dry poly, gloss under, semi gloss over, sanded lightly with 1200 and top coated with an oil poly mix. It took, off and on,most of a week. You feel like Matisse, a little ....

Click the photos to enlarge them

The photos below were all taken with the florescent lights on. We werent totally happy until we turned them off and turned on the chandeliers that Jim cleaned and are still hanging in the finish room ... Nobody has florescents lights in their dining room anyway...

Two of our many varnish samples .. same color on the left, natural cherry on the right

The underside is finished just like the top ... Watertown runners from Moin hardware.

Will, burning in the mark and date

Leg and apron and inlay

The shine under the regular lights

The leaves
Winston Churchill said once Success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm ... Just have at it ...

Some thoughts from the Unplugged Woodshop….
; )

Happy New Year !

we wrapped up a couple of cherry tables this week, and they couldnt be more different, probably, if they tried.  the table above, a slab of 8/4 cherry with small bevels and rounded corners, has a welded metal x shaped base, no ornament, straightforward and uncomplicated.  forthright, i guess you could say.
and at the same time, will was whipping up another version of our round, tapered octagonal pedestal tables.  this client , who is also local, was visiting the shop and saw this one back in january, which was slightly smaller, (42" in diameter vs 48" above) but the same in every respect.
both tables are simplified versions of the original design we made back in 2003.  that table was larger to start and had three leaves, as well as some painted details, and a more elaborate edge and center inlays, but certainly related.  take an object; do something to it.