Cabinets / Shelving

Months ago, if not a year ago, Collette said she wanted wall to wall cabinets on one side of the living room. I said, "sure, I can do that", without any experience building furniture. So this past September I started measuring and sketching with just an idea in our heads, and some pictures from really expensive furniture magazines. After the first weekend I had about 8 boards nailed together, which ended up being the core of the center section. The next Tuesday night, I sprained the hell out of my ankle and was unable to walk for nearly a month. So we had that basic box sitting in our living room for a month while I healed. I had 4 weeks to stare at the box, and revise the vision in my head on how the cabinets would be built. After healing, and regaining the ability to walk, the real work began, and another 6 or 7 weekends later it was finished.

The entire unit is built with Oak, Maple, and some hidden MDF. Throughout the project I had some help and got some tips from our neighbor George, who just happens to be a professional cabinet maker. He has every tool you can imagine, and more. He was kind enough to let me use his table router and wicked cool rail and stile bits, which are otherwise known as "automatic cabinet door makers."

Some of the things I learned:

• If you're going to paint wood, don't use oak. Poplar would have been a better choice. When painting oak the paint makes the grains rise, and you have to sand it again.
• Use pocket joints and get a cool jig when making cabinets. It makes it crazy strong, it's how professionals do it, and it pulls your wood together better than nails or clue can. And no, I didn't find this out until after I had already assembled 90% of the cabinets.
• Use proper clamps when assembling doors or a comparable item such as a picture frame. Big giant Bessy clamps seem to be the way to go. I used George's for the center 3 doors, and they came out perfectly flat, but I used my wimpy little Irwin clamps for the side doors, and they have a slight bow in them.
• I learned the importance of dado joints, and why a routing table is awesome, especially with the right bits.
• Don't plane wood before you build the doors. The idea being that if you own a large enough planer, you can run the entire finished door through it and make it perfectly flat, and the joints nearly invisible.

There are several things I wish I would have done differently, or better, but overall, we're very happy with the final result, especially since this is the first furniture project of any kind I've ever done. It was a huge learning process for me. It completely changes the look of the living room and makes the room look bigger. Collette also has a ton of room to put decorations and her Christmas villages.

So behold, the finished product, and several progress pictures...