Making a ‘floating’ secret drawer

Words and photos: Derek Cohen 
Illustration: Graham Sands

I recently completed two bedside tables for a visitor’s bedroom at home. The last visitors, my son and his wife, admired the previous tables so much that they adopted them for their home! I do love it when that happens – these days, after 30 years of filling our house with furniture, I continue to build for family and friends. It is one of life’s pleasures. Anyway, I got to make them again.

The design

My preference is for minimalistic furniture. This is not simple furniture by any means, but rather that the elements are reduced to essentials. And this makes for deceptively simple furniture which is often a great deal more work to do. In this case, less really is more.

The tables are essentially Tasmanian oak boxes on jarrah stands, sort of Krenov-meets-mid-century-Danish in concept. Each table has a single curved drawer front, and a tiny, window-like drawer on the side at the rear (photo 1).

Each bow-fronted case floats above a bow-fronted base. The legs are tapered and splayed. The choice of the light Tasmanian oak on the dark jarrah is to add to the separation of forms, and increase the sense of it floating. Peaceful and calm...is that not what one wants at bedtime?

Guests will look at the tiny drawer and say: ‘Cute – I can keep my watch, rings, and earrings in there!’ Woodworkers instead say: ‘How did you get it to float in the middle of the case?’ ‘What is holding it up – why does the tiny drawer not fall out?’ And then, ‘How can I build it?’ We like a puzzle to solve.

The tiny drawer

Well, obviously the drawer does not hang in space. If it did, it would look like the view in photo 2. Instead, it rests on the platform shown in photo 3.

The platform is just a box with a backing board which will become a fence or guide for the drawer (photo 4)...

This is screwed to the base of the case (photo 5).

The drawer is designed with one long side. The remainder is pretty much a standard drawer, with half- blind front, but where the rear has through dovetails on one side and the other attaches to the long side with a sliding dovetail. There is a groove for a drawer bottom. The extension is yet to be mortised in (photo 6). Inside the drawer, the mortise creates a mechanism which doubles as a slide and a drawer stop.

Photo 7 shows the drawer half-open.

Photo 8 shows how the slide is held against the guide by the stop, which is bolted through the slide.

Note the brass ferrule on the bolt to reduce friction (photo 9).

The curved drawer

The half-blinds at the front have been completed here. Photo 10 shows they are cut well back on the board to allow for waste when the curve is shaped.

Before proceeding further, add the groove for the drawer bottom behind the drawer front. Use a plough plane. This is easily done at this stage as the inside is flat. Here the drawer front is held in a sticking board (photo 11).

Curving the drawer front

Assemble the drawer and slide it into the case (as a dry fit) (photo 12). The aim here is to transfer the curve of the case to it.

The next step is to saw away the waste along the curve on a bandsaw (photo 13). My bandsaw is a Hammer N4400, which has the chassis rigidity to tension a Lenox Woodmaster CT 1" carbide blade. The advantage of a blade this wide is its reduced flex, which translates to a straight saw cut.

To smooth the curved surface, use a block plane to traverse across the board to shape down to the lines, working inwards from both sides to avoid blowing out the sides. The plane marks may then be cleaned up with a card scraper.

This is the fit I was looking for (photo 14) set in about 1mm to create a shadow line.

Curving the inside of the drawer

The waste is removed with the bandsaw, as before, working close to the line (photo 15). I used blue tape to make the waste line easier to see.

A narrow Stanley shoulder plane does a great job of traversing the curve, before cleaning up again with a scraper (photo 16).

The drawer front groove

Place the cut-away parts for the curve below the curve to provide stability when completing the drawer bottom groove. At this stage the groove is at full depth at the outer ends and shallow in its centre. Since the surface now curves, a plough plane cannot be used. Use a router plane, which has a short base and can follow the curve (photo 17).

Drawer slips

Thin drawer sides are elegant and light. Along with hand-cut dovetails, these features are common among finely made furniture. A third feature completes the trifecta – drawer slips.

When drawer sides are thin, say between 6–8mm wide, slips are best utilised to hold the drawer bottom rather than ploughing grooves into the sides and weakening them. Slips are runners which are glued onto the drawer sides. They have two purposes: firstly, to hold the drawer bottom in a 3mm groove ploughed into their sides and, secondly, to widen the underside registration of the drawer side.

I like to add a bead as a transition between the slip and the drawer bottom. This turns the contrasting grain directions of the parts into a decorative feature. In photo 18 you can see the bead is ploughed on the sticking board.

The slips are glued to the insides. Note the ploughed groove behind the drawer front and the grooves at the sides via the slips (photo 19).

The drawer bottom

The drawer bottom is made of the same Tasmanian oak and is 6mm thick. The important design element here is that the grain direction runs from side- to-side. Since wood expands across

the grain, this allows for movement towards the rear of the drawer. If the construction placed the grain direction front-to-back, movement would be towards the sides, and this would ultimately force the side outward and cause the drawer to bind in the case.

The drawer bottom will connect to the slips with a 3mm rebate at each side. The completed drawer bottom is shown in (photo 20).

Of course, the drawer bottom starts off straight at the leading end, and this needs to be curved to fit the curved groove behind the drawer. Use a washer to scribe the front (photo 21).

Photo 22 shows the fitting of the drawer bottom into the slips which act to offer extra bearing surface.

The finished drawer is shown in photo 23.

Drawer handles

Simple half-round pulls to maintain the curved theme. These are mortised into the drawer front (photo 24).

Features and details such as these add interest to a design, however they often require more time to execute. If you enjoy these processes your rewards will be doubled.

Derek Cohen is a child psychologist by day, and on weekends has been a serious furniture maker for over 30 years. His Floating Bedside Tables were shortlisted in Maker of the Year Awards 2023.