Kingsize Walnut Bed with Bookmatched Headboard

About The Project

The sleek simple lines of the solid walnut side and foot rails frame the mattress, which rests on horizontal slats. The bed sits high, which was a customer requirement that there had to be room for the family dog to sleep under the bed.

The highlight of the bed is the headboard, which is made from two bookmatched walnut boards. Bookmatching is the process where two consecutively cut boards are opened and glued together along matching edges, much like opening two opposing pages of a book. This results in the two boards creating a mirror image of each other. 

The bookmatched boards feature a stunning and one of a kind grain pattern. The grain has a predominant curl figure. The figure is a fluke of nature, not a particular species of tree. For unknown reasons the woodgrain grows in waves and curls instead of straight, analogous to curly versus straight hair in people. The shimmer occurs because the grain cells grow at varying angles to each other, thus causing the light rays to reflect at varying angles. In the right circumstances this can lead to an iridescent 3D effect. 

Another highlight of the headboard are the darker mineral steak lines and lighter sapwood areas. In walnut, only the inner heartwood is dark, while the outer younger sapwood is light.

I give credit to my sawyer Brian Lorenzen from Logs-to-Lumber for sourcing the wood. In addition to selling stock hardwood, he custom saws and dries wood. When I said I needed walnut for the headboard, he had the perfect boards.

This is what I love best about furniture making - showing off the beauty of nature.

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