I was cutting all my drawer fronts wrong for years until a picture from a 1920s catalog

I always made my drawer fronts with the grain running up and down, thinking it looked right. Then I saw a close-up photo in an old furniture catalog from 1922, and every single drawer had the grain running side to side. It hit me that the horizontal grain stops the eye from jumping up and down, making the whole piece feel calmer. I redid a small chest I was working on, flipping the grain on the three drawers, and the difference was huge. My wife walked in and said 'That looks way more solid' without me even asking. Has anyone else had a grain direction rule they learned way too late?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarahsullivan4d ago

My buddy Mark built a whole dresser with vertical grain before learning that lesson.

elliotc104d ago

Vertical grain looks way better though, and sometimes you gotta just go for it.