I remember waking up with a plan for a dresser in my head. I often "picture think" so I set down to clear up the pictures in my head. I got a CAD program and began designing the thing in CAD.

A dresser isn't a complicated thing but I hated some of the design elements of dressers, such as:

the drawer bottoms always get bowed, fall out and are impossible to replace

handles make it hard to open the drawers unless you can reach the handle (I know this sounds odd but I want to open the drawer by pulling anywhere on the drawer underneath or on top of the drawer.)

dresser frames seem overdesigned. They are impossibly heavy and use a lot of panels that can warp.

My drawer design is basically a "crate" with slats for the sides and bottom (all 1" x 2" boards). It is lighter than a drawer of equal volume, does not need a router to cut slots for the drawer bottom and is considerably stronger than a "pane;" drawer.

The dresser frame is a space-frame made from 1"x2" and 1"x3" with the shelf rails as structural members. In later models I added cross-pieces to the top of the frame fir better support for something heavy on the top of the dresser.

I bought a lot of Makita tools and began work on projects in my apartment on my deck as I do not have a garage or driveway. I do all cuts outside on my decl with plenty of dust-management.

Like all my projects I use "gang cuts" so all the pieces in a structure match. If I'm off by, say, 1/16" I don't care since all pieces match.

I now use dowels and DowelMax for all joining.

I welcome all comments and questions about my furniture. I'm always looking to learn and build more.