Jamie Latham

Eyeline bedside table
605 x 440 x 397mm

This piece is based on a bedside table I made for a friend. She wanted a piece with lots of practical drawers, as storage is always a problem for people with limited space.

The handles are of a style we make at Dunstone Design (the Eyeline handle) and were developed by Evan. The carcase is based on my final piece for TAFE and features floating panels. I like using half round blades that terminate in a birdsbeak joint, so that the round can continue up the leg. This has the advantage of creating a shadow line at the top of the drawer where clearance must be left for expansion and contraction of the drawer front. I like the fact that this basic design configuration could be expanded up to any size, all the way up to a tallboy. Many makers like their cabinet to be so close fitting that a vacuum is formed by the drawers. I find many clients don’t appreciate this and see it as an error. I have used wenge strips on the sides of my drawers to leave a fine gap (equal to the gap across the top and softened by the shadow line). This gives the drawer a smooth, low friction action with little air lock. The wenge also provides a detail for anyone who cares to look.

Materials and construction
The cabinet is made form solid Victorian blackwood with wenge drawer runners. The drawer bottoms are veneer over MDF. I have used slip tenons, dominos, dovetails and birdsbeak joinery on the piece. The through dovetails were made with a Gifkins jig. The Eyeline handle is made by gluing a pre-shaped strip along the top of the drawer prior to dovetailing (careful colour matching is required to make the joint invisible). The final hand shaping of the drawer is done as the very last operation.

Glues and finishing
The piece is finished with Livos oil (four coats) and a final coat of Bivos (an oil/wax)(. I used polyurethane glue for all long grain gluing and F9M PVA for the joinery.

Photos: Jamie Latham