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This item was my first woodworking project (beyond slamming 16p nails into a 2x4).....
The shelf was requested by my sister as an item to cover an old stove flue that was located in the corner.
The curved fronts on the shelves gave me some very valuable lessons in routing and how/when tearouts can happen (ripped the front right off of one of the shelves when the round-over bit grabbed it) which required ripping a chunk off the front of that shelf and gluing on another piece that was a reasonably close match to the grain.
Built from Walnut and Oak. To get the width requested a 'post' was needed for the back corner of the shelf. Seeing as how I do a lot of 'dumpster diving' at local construction sites, I decided to build the post from a stack of oak cut-offs I had collected in the past. Various sizes in the stack so I took 25 of them and planed them to 1/2" X 1/2" and built the 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" post. Dado's were then cut for the side panels to attach to.
The curved toe-kick drove me nuts for a long time until a member of another forum I frequent ( http://www.bt3central.com) gave me the hint about creating 'bendable wood' with the use of multiple kerfs. Here's a shot of the toe-kick being glued up to an MDF form to create the base for the shelf.
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All in all, a heck of a learning process for a first piece. I stayed away from building anything that did not consist of all straight cuts for a while.

The shelf was requested by my sister as an item to cover an old stove flue that was located in the corner.
The curved fronts on the shelves gave me some very valuable lessons in routing and how/when tearouts can happen (ripped the front right off of one of the shelves when the round-over bit grabbed it) which required ripping a chunk off the front of that shelf and gluing on another piece that was a reasonably close match to the grain.

Built from Walnut and Oak. To get the width requested a 'post' was needed for the back corner of the shelf. Seeing as how I do a lot of 'dumpster diving' at local construction sites, I decided to build the post from a stack of oak cut-offs I had collected in the past. Various sizes in the stack so I took 25 of them and planed them to 1/2" X 1/2" and built the 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" post. Dado's were then cut for the side panels to attach to.

The curved toe-kick drove me nuts for a long time until a member of another forum I frequent ( http://www.bt3central.com) gave me the hint about creating 'bendable wood' with the use of multiple kerfs. Here's a shot of the toe-kick being glued up to an MDF form to create the base for the shelf.

All in all, a heck of a learning process for a first piece. I stayed away from building anything that did not consist of all straight cuts for a while.