I ’ve always had a soft spot for the clean lines and simplicity of Shaker-style furniture. So when my recent college grad daughter asked me to build a storage cabinet for her small apartment, my design sensibilities naturally turned to Shaker inspirations. A cabinet like this will never go out of fashion, and I think its two-tone cherry and milk paint theme, combined with some antique brass hardware from Rockler, give it contemporary flair. Building this cabinet will also put some good mileage on your rail-and-stile router bit set. If you need a refresher on how to set up and use those effectively — or if this is your first experience with these router bits — see our new Simplifying Bit Setups department on page 50.
Building the Cabinet Sides
Let’s get started by jointing and planing 8/4 stock down to 1¾" thick for the legs and ripping four leg blanks to size. I chose clear yellow poplar, which paints well. Crosscut the legs to 35¼" long.
Mark the leg bottoms for short tapers on both inside edges of each leg. These tapers begin 3" up from the bottom ends and reduce their thickness to 1" square at the “feet.” Cut them to shape using a tapering jig, either at the table saw or band saw.
Set the legs aside for now so you can rip 2"-wide workpieces for the rails and stiles of the side frames from 3/4" stock. Here again, I used affordable poplar. While you’re at it, prepare lengths of railand-stile stock for the doors, too. Make sure these door frame parts are harvested from straight-grained lumber and are
