My granddaughter requested a new nightstand to replace a folding table, and if possible have it match the existing furniture as much as possible. I said sure & we were off and running. She even helped me design the new stand, giving preferences for a drawer & shelf, along with dimensions. I selected some nice Poplar at the sawmill for this project, never used Poplar prior & I wanted to see what it is like to work with. As I was going to dye & white wash this, I didn't think the usual green in the wood would matter. The existing chest of drawers & dresser have tops of natural pine with pine accents, and a white washed appearance elsewhere. To match I used Behr Water Based White Semi-Transparent Whitewash on the body, TransTint dye to match the pine on top, and Behr water-based Polyurethane all over the entire nightstand. The Behr white wash and the TransTine both did a nice job of hiding the green, which should turn brown over time. As for the Behr water based Poly, it brushes on just as water would, it runs and drips over edgers while collecting under overhangs, just as water would, so you need to be diligent about checking all over when applying. Clean up was easy with soap & water, but for me - I'll be going back to my old standard General Finishes Arm-R-Seal from now on. As usual for me, I used as many traditional hand tools as possible. Tenons were cut with my moving fillister plane and wooden rabbit. As for the double board top edge profile, I used a wooden round plane, and a beading plane, with a profile checker made from a drawing.
The top's bottom board was fashioned using a wooden round on the top edge, and the drawer's profile was cut with the moving fillister and a wooden round plane. For anyone considering using Poplar but may be hesitant due to the green, I actually found it pretty ease to cover with the whitewash & TransTint dye. Photos of the unfinished table follow. There wasn't a ton of green, and I selected cuts to minimize it showing.
