Arts & Crafts Style: Greene & Greene Details

Class Preview

Create timeless Greene & Greene details that instantly elevate your handcrafted tables, chairs, cabinets and more.

Class Overview & Cloud Lifts

Meet your instructor, woodworker and professional instructor Dale Barnard, as he offers a history into the distinctive Greene & Greene style that adds a touch of East Asian aesthetic to the Arts and Crafts movement. Learn about the seven distinctive and quintessential design details you’ll tackle in this class, then jump right into your first: cloud lifts. Use a template and gather professional tips for using a bandsaw, rasp and a spindle sander. Find out what to do if you experience router burn and learn about the other ways you can create cloud lifts, including using a Forstner bit.

Ebony Plugs

Discover the history behind ebony plugs and how they have been used not only as a colorful accent, but also for covering up screws or dowels. Learn how to make a mortise with a hand drill and a punch. Then, make your plugs as you refine your cut measurements on a piece of inexpensive poplar before moving on to ebony. Gather tips for creating a perfect pillow top as Dale demonstrates proper techniques for sanding, cutting and back beveling your plugs.

Breadboard Ends & Splines

Make a tabletop that showcases this classic Greene & Greene style as Dale shows you how to construct your breadboard with traditional proud ends and ebony splines. Explore how wood movement will affect your tabletop and how to construct the top to accommodate changing seasons. Pick up professional techniques for creating mortises and tenons as well as several troubleshooting tips for diagnosing and adjusting tenons that don’t fit just right. Discover how to cut the groove for your spline using a router and how to create a custom plywood pattern for your spline.

Pierced Aprons

Add a bit of lightness and elegance to your table aprons as you learn how to create classic Greene & Greene pierced aprons. Use a pattern and your router to create these openings as you work with a router collar and a pattern jig. Dale offers advice for what type of router bits to use as well as how to make a custom jig. See how to line up your pattern and learn how to avoid tearaway and router burnout. Then, using your collared bit, create a cloud lift on your apron using a pattern jig.

Low-Leg Indents

Delve into this decorative and distinctive accent you create using a custom jig built according to the plans included in your class materials. You won’t believe how quickly you can add this styling to any chair or table leg as you rout at a graduated angle, leaving the appearance that your accent fades right into the leg. Dale also leads a discussion on the different ways to avoid and remove router burns.

Finger Joints

Discover the characteristics of the traditional finger joint as Dale offers design advice for the size and shape of your joints. Learn how to make sure your round-over is proportional for your piece and use the schematics in your class materials to build a custom jig to cut out your pieces. Then, master two ways to rasp your corner details. Finally, add the pegs and learn additional methods for making your finger joints.

Sculpted Drawer Handles

Learn how Greene & Greene designed their drawer handles and how that changed depending on the room in the house. Then, create your own as you learn to make an undercut using a cove box bit. Learn how you can use an edge sander to sculpt the round-overs on your pull and use a rasp to shape the ends. Don’t have an edge sander? No problem! Dale will tell you how you can use a belt sander or even a rasp to achieve the same result!