Giraffe Bookcase

This series of blog posts describes the design, planning, and construction of the giraffe bookcase I built in 2021 for my daughter, son-in-law, and...

I found four good 8' long, 12" wide, 4/4 poplar boards at the lumberyard, along with a 4' long, 7-1/2" wide, 8/4 board for the legs. Theoretically,...

Before I could start drilling the dowel holes in the part faces, I had to make the angle-specific drill guide blocks I mentioned in a previous post...

Cutting the legs turned out to be one of the most troublesome parts of the project, and the part where I made the most mistakes. My original plan ...

The giraffe's tail is is a compound shape formed by a circle, ellipse, and trapezoid. [06.00 Tail Dimensions.jpg] I made a template and used it to...

The giraffe's head is one of the more complex parts of the bookcase because both it and its horns and ears are removable (the former for transport,...

 The glue-up part of a project is always nerve-wracking for me, and this project was no exception. Dowel joinery helps a lot, but it doesn't totall...

The final woodworking step was attaching the legs to the case. As with everything else, I used dowels. The front legs were straightforward. I used...

In my last painted project (a sideboard), I used General Finishes Milk Paint, and I painted the parts before assembly. I don't think the GF paint i...