Tea Cabinet

I’m a grad student, which in my department means that I get a windowless, dark cave for an office.  Needless to say, I don’t much like being there.  To make it a little more pleasant, I made my self this desktop tea cabinet, to store my mugs, tea pot, and teas.

The carcass is 3/4″ pine that I planed to 5/8 or so.  Construction of the carcass is stopped dados throughout.  The drawers are butt jointed boxes that just nest in their well.  The back is 1/4″ plywood rabbetted and nailed into the case.  The door panel and drawer fronts are 1/2″ soft maple.  I made the drawer pulls and cabinet pull from 3/8″ pine that I rounded over and mortised into their homes.  All the maple faces are finished in shellac and wax; the rest is finished in salem red milk paint with a coat of paste wax.  I’m very pleased with milk paint (see https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com/topic/milk-paint/)

The flash on this camera is pretty brutal, really drawing attention to what I know are slight imperfections (and with which I can live).  I’m ultimately pretty happy with this.  I was going for something between Shaker and Krevnov (ok, the only Krevnov influence is the maple panels, which in my case don’t even come close to the unbelievable wood that Krevnov used), while using many of the techniques I learned in Paul’s wall clock project.  The contrasting maple panel and drawer fronts were an experiment, and I have mixed feelings about them (and the amount of extra preparation they required).  I learned a lot about fitting drawers, doors, and hinges.  I’m positive that I’ll enjoy using this cabinet, and it will really spruce up my dark office.

Justin