Build a tansu chest

Tansu drawers
I made my drawers from 1/2"-thick Baltic birch ply, with a 1/4"-thick ply drawer bottom that fits into grooves on the inside face of all four drawer box sides. A separate flush-mounted, solid-wood drawer face goes on each drawer box after it's built and installed. The mechanical drawer slides I chose require that each drawer box be one inch narrower than the opening it fits into. This is a standard figure, but be warned: there's not much room for error. That's why you need to custom build each drawer for a specific opening.

Don't follow the materials list dimensions exactly for drawer box parts since normal construction variations on your chest may demand a slightly wider or narrower drawer size. The bottom set of drawers requires a different style of mechanical slides, as I found out later after buying them all the same. Since the chest sits directly on the floor, there's no room to tilt the bottom drawers to get to the contents at the back. That's why you need to use lever-release, full-extension drawer slides for the three bottom drawers.

Once the drawers are built, installed and sliding to your satisfaction, cut decorative drawer faces. If you prepare neighbouring drawer faces from the same piece of wood, the continuous grain patterns will enhance the appearance of your project. Parts listed as drawer fronts are actually used in two places: on the front of each drawer box (as you'd expect), and on the back of the project, permanently mounted to cover the back of each drawer space. These fixed rear “drawer faces” need to fit snugly within their openings (nail them into place after finishing), while the real drawer faces require some clearance with the wood that surrounds them so they can move back and forth. I use strips of melamine as spacers around the drawer faces. Some people use pennies to do this, but I find there isn't much to grab. Once I'm happy with drawer face locations, I lock the parts in place with two #6 one inch countersunk screws driven through each drawer face where the handle will be located. Open the drawer and add four #8 one inch screws countersunk from inside the drawer box.

To finish the project, I used three coats of Minwax Polyshade Honey Pine, followed by one top coat of clear urethane. I sanded between the coats of stain using 220-grit sandpaper, then used #0000 steel wool between the stain and the urethane coats. After the urethane coat, I wet-sanded using 400-grit paper. Finally, it's time to put on the hardware. This final step really transforms the piece.

The black metal hardware I used was custom-made for me by a blacksmith in Cranbrook, B.C. If you don't have a blacksmith at your disposal, there are many sources of Tansu hardware online.

This project works quite well as an efficient storage piece under an open staircase or next to a closed set of stairs, playing up their shape. Just don't expect either location to help much if the tax auditors pay a visit.

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