Choosing hardware & finishes. Decisions about functional hidden hardware such as concealed hinges, drawer slides, and fasteners, as well as decorative exposed hardware, such as butt hinges, and door and drawer handles, need to be made as part of the design process. If you’re trying to make a decision about some piece of functional hardware that’s new to you, and you’re not completely sure how it will work, then now’s the time to make a simple prototype. Let’s use a drawer slide as an example. Say you choose a new style drawer slide that you haven’t used before. Staple together four boards to imitate a cabinet, and four boards to imitate a drawer (this is as sophisticated as a prototype need be). Mount the slide and see that it functions as you want it to. Doing this will also give you an idea of how forgiving the mounting tolerances will be. This is important to know since it may require you to preform the construction with a greater degree of accuracy than you’re accustomed to.
Choosing your decorative hardware can be more difficult because of all the choices available. Looking in hardware catalogs is a great way to start, but you should make your final decisions with an actual piece of the decorative hardware in your possession.
The time to choose a finish is also during design, not after your project is built. You want to know far in advance how the finish will look and how it will be applied. Unless you’re very familiar with the finishing product you plan to use, you should test it on a large scrap of the actual project stock.
If you plan to stain your wood, you’ll need to make more involved samples. You need to find out in the design stage how the stain looks on a large sample, and you need to know how easy or difficult it is to apply. Some stains are harder to apply than others. Gel stains and other thick stains tend to be more difficult to apply, and oil stains somewhat easier. When planning to use a difficult-to-apply stain, make samples of inside corner joints. Since a stained inside corner has to be wiped cross grain, that can have a huge effect on how the stain looks there. To complete your stained samples, also apply the topcoat product you plan to use. The topcoat will alter the look of the stained board in most cases.
Use sheet goods to build cabinetry. Contemporary cabinets often are made with visible reveals between the doors and cabinet box. As a result, even a little warpage will be easily noticeable. Since plywood and other sheet goods are much more stable, you’re less likely to have warpage problems using them than with glued up solid wood panels.
Test hardware on working project prototypes, especially if you don’t have any experience with that type of hardware. Drawer slides, especially, vary a great deal in installation method and in acceptable tolerance for error, and they can impact the required size of the drawer opening.
Test finish products on scraps of the same type of wood to be used in your project. Once you’ve made a selection, retest your choice on a larger scrap board to get a more accurate idea of how the finished project parts would look.
Making Prototypes
At some point during the planing process you should consider making a prototype of your project. Prototypes can, and in most cases should be, crude and quick constructions. The intention here is to build a full-sized section of a part of the construction that you’re having difficulty working out in your mind or on paper. How much prototyping you need to do will depend on what it is you’re building. Here are some examples: Say you plan to build a large entertainment center and you want to see how big it really will be. Cut up large pieces of cardboard for the front, top and sides, and tape them together. Now you can see how big it really is. Or, say you plan to build a table with a routed edge, but you don’t know which routed profile to use. Make some large test wood pieces, rout some profiles, and see how they look. When you’ve narrowed down the choices, add wood pieces to approximate the table aprons and tabletop overhang.
Building any kind of seating is a must prototype situation. Start by sitting in a number of chairs or sofas and take measurements from them. Then prototype the seating you plan to build. I do this with 2 x 4’s and particleboard. If you start with the prototype a little short, you can easily add more pieces of particleboard to raise and test a higher seat. You just have to be able to sit comfortably in the prototype before you build the actual chair, or chances are the real thing won’t sit comfortably. If your seating will be cushioned, approximate the cushion thickness in your prototype too. Prototype everything you think you need to, but make it a quick process so you can get on to drawing your plans and then building your project.
Build scale models. Although not useful for testing mass or joinery, models give you a 3-D perspective on your plan as well as a sense of part proportion.
Prototype tricky joints by cutting full-sized workpieces from inexpensive wood, then building the joint. Among other advantages, this will help you decide which is the best tool for cutting the actual project joints.
Standard furniture dimensions:
Dining tables
Top height: 29 to 30 in.
Place setting width: 24 in. minimum, 30 in. optimum.
Table edge to pedestal base clearance: 14 in. minimum.
Apron to floor minimum clearance: 23½ in.
Miscellaneous tables Coffee tables: 12 to 18 in. tall.
End tables: 18 to 24 in. tall.
Desks
Depth: 30 in. deep.
Writing height: 29 in. to 30 in.
Computer keyboard stations: 25 in. to 27 in. tall.
Bedroom furniture Dressers: 18 to 24 in. deep, 30-in. minimum height.
Night stands: 18 to 22 in.
Bed mattress height: 18 to 22 in.
Chairs
Seat height: 15 to 18 in.
Seat width: 17 to 20 in.
Seat depth: 15 to 18 in.
Arm rest (from seat): 8 to 10 in.
Build a full prototype. You don’t have to use the actual wood stock or even make the parts look exactly like they will, but building a full-size, working prototype from inexpensive materials is a good idea, especially for seating projects.
Make a cardboard prototype. To get an idea of the actual footprint and mass of a larger project, rig up some pieces of cardboard to fit together in the rough project shape and dimensions. Actually position the prototype in the spot