Background

This chestnut vanity and linen closet were part of a number of projects we completed for a home in Strathmere, NJ. In addition, to this chestnut vanity, we also made a zebrawood vanity, a painted vanity, and an entire kitchen.

Construction Details of the Chestnut Vanity and Linen Closet

The chestnut that we used for this project came from reclaimed timbers from Tindall's Virgin Timbers. Most of the native North American chestnut trees were wiped out by the chestnut blight so the best source for chestnut lumber today is reclaimed timber that comes, primarily, from old barns and factories. If you look closely in the photograph above, you will see that the grain of the panel to the left of the sink is bookmatched. We accomplished this by cutting the board in half, opening the two cut halves like a book, and gluing them together. The same process was applied to the smaller end panel and the panel in the soffit over the sink (partially visible in the photo below). We also matched the grain across elements. This can be seen in the right hand stiles of the vanity cabinet drawers. While the top drawer is a false drawer to accommodate the vanity sink, the lower two drawers are operable. In order to allow for the plumbing, we constructed the drawers boxes in a "U" shape so that they wrap around the plumbing. The drawer boxes are all solid wood with dovetailed joints and 1/2" thick plywood. The drawers run on Blum undermount drawer slides with a soft-close feature. The cabinet boxes are made of prefinished birch plywood. The glass panels in the linen closet door are white laminated glass.

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