Hadley Chest

If you’ve ever wanted to make a historical piece of furniture for your home, the chest you’re looking at here answers that bell and a lot more. But it may not be the type of historical biography that you would expect. First off, Hadley is a place, not a person. Hadley, Massachusetts is where — under the evolution of many hands — this chest emerged. Its ancestry hints at William and Mary English furniture from the 1600s that, taken into Yankee hands, grew in all sorts of ways. Some moved towards a folkish feel with brightly painted colors. Others had initials carved in the front and served as hope chests for young brides. But let’s brag on the chest that you’re looking at here for a moment. You can’t go wrong with oak — and there’s a lot of it here. From the sturdy legs and carved panels, to the drawer pulls and hinge pins, it’s all oak. Yep, the drawer sides and back are oak also. In the pursuit of keeping things historically real, the planks for the chest bottom along with the drawer bottom are made from resawn fir. No plywood here, thank you. But there’s plenty of diversity when it comes to making the parts of the chest: carving the front panels, dovetail work on the drawers, and turning the pulls and hinges. All of your tools and skills will get a workout on this project, so you better get after it.

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