Drawer Bottoms

This weekend was a flurry of activity to try and get the table inside the house! There were several things going on simultaneously (switching between projects as I waited for glue or finish to dry) but I’ll put the various parts together into single posts. First, the drawer bottoms.

I started down the path of making the table top a bright red, but after looking at some samples we realized that having the whole table that color might burn into our retinas, so we decided on a navy blue for the top. I still loved that red though, so I lined the bottom of the drawers with it instead!

I did all of this outside to make sure that any sawdust floating around the shop didn’t get embedded into the suede, never to be removed.

First, I glued a piece of the suede to a thin foam pad using 3M Super 77, a maker’s best friend:

The pad makes sure the surface has a little bit of give to it, which makes it easier to pick up flat things like playing cards. After drying for 30 minutes or so, I cut the sandwich using a template I cut that matched the size of the bottom of the drawer:

Turns out that cutting fabric with a razor blade is not the best way to do things. If it didn’t cut perfectly through everything, it ended up pulling out threads and turning into a mess. I eventually just used the blade to cut through the foam, and then picked the piece up and cut through the fabric with scissors, using the size of the cut foam as the guide.

I did that five more times and the drawers were officially done!

The foam/fabric sandwich is just sitting on the bottom of the drawer, not glued down. This makes them easy to remove/replace if the time ever comes.