I designed and built a Mid Century Modern Baby Crib for our first baby boy. I wanted to build a high end crib that had an heirloom piece feel to it, but I still wanted to keep it modern, happy, and inspired creativity. Colors haven't been my strong suit, so I was glad Chris Salomone of Foureyes built something with exactly the colors I was looking for. It's a pretty big build, with lots of individual pieces. I was able to keep the mistakes minimal and none of my design mistakes hurt my design intent. The crib is very strong and sturdy, so I'm very happy with the results.
Checkout the full build video below!
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materials
3/4” Walnut Plywood
1/2” Walnut Plywood
1/4” Walnut Plywood
step 1: case prep
I began by working on the case first by breaking down some 3/4” walnut plywood using the tracksaw and table saw. Then cutting some walnut hard wood strips for edgebanding to cover up the plywood edges. Using a block plane, I could flush up the edgebanding after the glue has dried.
step 2: case joinery
I set the table saw blade at 45 degrees to cut the miter joints for the side panels. Since the case bottom panel was too long and wide for the table saw, I used my tracksaw instead.
step 3: bevels
Once the miter joints have been cut, I could cut the 45-deg bevels along the front edges of the case panels.
step 4: more case joinery
The first image shows the construction of the case. The very top has a frame constructed from 3/4” ply which the crib top will sit on. Underneath that are two 1/2” panels, each sitting in a dado on the case side panel and a rabbet in the center support. The reason I did this was to thicken the area that the crib panels will sit on, which allows me to use longer bolts for strength. The top 3/4” frame will receive bevels around the edges to continue the overall aesthetics of the case. Once assembled, nobody would be able to tell unless they removed the mattress and the mattress support slats.
I first cut the 3/4” dado into the bottom panel for receiving the aforementioned center support. Since it’s not a through-cut, I used a chisel to square up the ends. Then I cut 1/2” dados into the side panels for receiving the 1/2” panels on top. Before gluing anything together, I also added a rabbet in the back of the panels for receiving a 1/4” back panel, which I forgot to film in the video.
The case bottom are attached to the case sides using glue and Dominos. While waiting for the glue to dry, I moved on to cutting two rabbets on either sides of the same edge in the center partition. Once that’s done, I applied some glue in the dado and attached it to the rest of the case.
step 5: case assembly
With the case still open from the top, I applied finish to the inside of the case and installed the drawer slides. Afterwards, I applied glue and slid the 1/2” panel into their respective dado and rabbet. Lastly, I marked and cut the 3/4” plywood pieces to size to frame the top of the 1/2” panels.
With most of the case completed, I attached the 1/4” back panel using glue and brad nails. But before calling it a day, I also added a piece of embellishment piece to the front of the center divider.
step 6: lumber prep for crib
With the case set aside, I moved to the crib portion of the build, which is made mostly out of walnut hardwood instead of plywood. So the first thing I had to do was to mill the lumber up by flattening one face and square up one edge on the jointer, flatten the second face on the planer, and then ripped the pieces to width at the table saw.
step 7: head/footboards
I started out by making the head and footboards. Each one is essentially a piece of 3/4” plywood framed by thick hardwood, much like a picture frame. After cutting the plywood to size, I went around the perimeter and marked out how the frame pieces will be cut. I used Dominoes here to help me do dry fits. The frame pieces will sit 1/4” proud of the ply on one face, and then a bevel on the other side that goes down to intersect the plywood edge.
After marking out the bevel on the end of the hardwood, I lined up my mark with the saw blade and made the cut. Once everything looked good, I attached everything together with glue and clamps. Once the glue dried, I cleaned up any unevenness using a hand plane and applied finish to the piece.
step 8: attaching method for head/footboards
Since the crib is larger than the door inside my house, it needs to be easy to disassemble and then reassemble once all the pieces have been brought into the house. To attach the head and footboards to the case, I’m using some dominoes which will act as locating pins to help me consistently position the pieces.
The real workhorse for attaching things together will be some 1/4-20 bolts. Once I drilled the necessary holes on both the case and the head & footboards, I tapped the holes to receive the bolts.
step 9: side frame
Next, I moved on to building the side frame. The bottom of the front side rail is a little different from the other pieces because it will receive a bevel going down from the rails to the front edge of the case. This will help provide a smooth transition between the two sections of the overall piece.
STEP 10: SLATS
Once the side frame was done, I cut all 28 slats to their final dimensions, then added Dominoes to both ends, which is how they’ll attach to the frame made earlier. After rounding out the sharp edges of the slats on my router table, I drilled the holes for the bolts used to attach the sides to the head and footboards. First I used a Forstner bit to drill a recess for the head of the bolt to sit in, then I drilled a thru hole for the bolt to drop through.
step 11: attaching side frame to head/footboards
After lining up the side frame to the head and footboards, I marked the corresponding hole locations, and then drilled and tapped them to receive the 1/4-20 bolts.
step 12: attaching side frame to case
Mounting the sides to the case was a little more challenging than attaching the head/footboards to the case. Because if I was to shoot the bolt from underneath the case, the head of the bolt will block the drawer from closing properly since I didn’t drill a recess in the case for the bolt head to sit flush to. So I ended up making some cleats, which are attached to the frame using dominoes, and then the bolts would go through them from the top and into the case.
step 13: glue-up of slats to frame
Once all the necessary bolt holes were drilled and tapped, I moved on to assembly. I added glue into all of the mortises and the inserted the vertical slats to both the top and bottom rails, making necessary adjustments as I went to ensure everything was square. Then I clamped it all down.
step 14: assembly
Once the glue had some to dry, I set the sides on to the case by using Dominoes as locating pins, just like I did with the head and footboards. Then bolted the sides down to do a quick dry fit.
step 15: drawer box
Next up were the drawer boxes. I used some 1/2” birch ply I had laying around for the drawer box sides, which will all receive a 1/4” dado along the bottom for receiving a 1/4” bottom panel.
step 16: drawer front
Both of the drawer fronts were made from MDF since I’ll be painting them. After cutting the pieces down to size, I cut a recess on to the top edge for the finger pull to sit into. Once I checked that the finger pull was flush to the top edge of the drawer front, I painted them.
step 17: mattress platform cleat
The last thing left to do for the crib was making the rails for the mattress supports. I used some left over pieces of 8/4 walnut, which will receive a large rabbet ripped through the entire length of the piece. AFter cutting them to their final lengths, I rounded over all of the sharp edges and drilled the necessary holes for bolts to drop through.
After looking around online to find the common heights for the mattresses to sit at, I marked them on the crib sides. I drilled the holes and tapped them.
step 18: mattress platform
The actual mattress support slats were made from hard maple.
step 19: final install
With all of the parts completed, I brought them inside to begin the final assembly. Notice I added four giant holes at the bottom. This was because the case was really deep, so I couldn’t reach back far enough to tighten down the bolts in the rear for the head and footboards. In hindsight, I realized it would have been better to simply use stretcher pieces for the bottom instead of an entire piece of plywood. But there’s not much I could do about it now.