Furniture Joinery: Strength Meets Beauty
Joinery is what holds furniture together, allowing a collection of parts to become a cohesive and functional whole. When designing furniture, designing the joinery is an important piece of the overall design. In the best designs, joints are strong, flexible (wood expands and contracts with temperature and humidity) and also beautiful. While there is no shortage of affordable, strong fasteners and glues in our modern industrial age, some of the most beautiful and intricate joinery methods have been stood the test of time for hundreds of years and require high level of woodworking skill. Let’s show you some examples:
Neal used angled miter joints to hold together the walls of his treasure boxes (top left). Miters are also commonly used in picture frames but they are notoriously weak. The darker splines, in three rows across the miter, add strength and beauty.
The shelves on the triangle end table (top middle) are joined to the legs using dadoes and half lap joints reinforced with screws for strength. If you zoom in, you will see wood plugs on the legs that cover the screws and provide a decorative element. The shelves on the kitchen shelf (top right) are also joined to the frame with dadoes and half laps reinforced with screws. In addition, Neal uses a French cleat to mount the shelf which distributes the weight of the shelf for securing it to the wall.
Sometimes Neal likes to have a little fun with the joints. The top of the hall table (bottom left) appears to float above the legs. In fact, it is solidly joined to a cross member in the middle which is hidden from view. The cathedral legs on the square end table are striking but also stablize the table legs and add strength to the design.
Chairs and beds suffer continuous forces from use and being moved around. Neal used mortise and tenon joints are used throughout the frames of his conversation chair (bottom middle) and Craftsman bed frame (bottom right) for strength to resist these forces. A mortise and tenon joint can also handle the expansion and contraction of the frame due to seasonal temperature or humidity changes – as does the tongue and groove joint used in the cabinet-like panels at the end of the bed. Knowing where the wood will move and allowing for that is key.
Fine furniture is beautiful and joints often appear as decorative elements. However, these furniture pieces are also meant to be heirlooms passed down through generations. In that regard, the joinery is a critical design feature to ensure longterm durability.
