This walnut bench was one of the most satisfying builds I've done. It was my first attempt at furniture piece without using screws. The design is original and it more or less necessitated a "screw-less" build because I wanted to support big, beefy joints. I wanted this bench to be able to withstand strenuous "farmhouse" living (not that it actually will), but with the subtle, simple elegance of a mid century. Here are my main takeaways from this project:

1. Sometimes you have to match the piece to the wood. In this case I already had the raw walnut lumber. One piece was over 2" thick, 6" across and had a rustic cross hatch pattern straight from the mill. A gorgeous board. I couldn't bring myself to rip it so I was in search of a concept that would showcase it. I was limited in the quantity of walnut I had on hand, so the project needed to be on the smaller side. I settled on the bench design you see here because it didn't require much dimensioning of the wood and would fit perfectly in my home's entrance. 

2. I'll take this opportunity to plug Habitat for Humanity: ReStore. If you have a local ReStore and are not taking advantage of it, you are really missing out on some dynamite deals. On one particular trip I scored all the raw walnut lumber I used for this piece (and more). The walnut lumber for this bench did not cost me more than $20. Insane. I can't guarantee you'll find premium lumber every time, but it is worth a look. Even if you can't find what you really want, you'll probably find something else of use (tools, hardware, screws etc). 

3. You don't need a special dowel jig to do this. Milescraft sells a set of dowel centers for $5. Drilling your first dowel hole, placing a center and then aligning with your receiving board works just fine. I actually made my own centers by putting a short brad nail on a cut off dowel (but I will be buying centers moving forward). If you are doing angled joints like the ones, you see here it is very important to get the angle right on your drilling. Unfortunately, it's difficult to do angles with a hand drill consistently. A drill press comes in handy here.

4. It was excruciating, but I managed to keep all the pieces "dry" until the one and only glue-up at the end. I made mistakes along the way, so I'm happy I withheld the glue. It is much easier to go back on wood that hasn't been glued. I cannot express how satisfying it was to see all 10 boards fit snuggly together. If you've done a project like this, you know that nirvana. 

5. You can never have enough clamps. Never.