furniture
My furniture projects are few, and although few I haven't taken time to document them all. Hopefully I'll get time to document tham all here. The big ones are the entertainment system, a kitchen table, a nightstand with drawer, and my side entry cabinets that hang from the wall at the side entrance to the house.
side entry cabinets
The side entry area of my house needs to perform a number of functions:
- Provide hooks and hangers for winter coats for both tall adults and short children
- Provide drawers for the storage of winter gear (hats, gloves, scarves, etc.), as well as dog stuff and other odds and ends
- Provide hooks for children to hang their school stuff (backpacks, lunch bags, snow pants, etc.)
- Provide a place to sort and store recyclables (cans, plastic, glass, paper)
- Leave plenty of space for wet boots and shoes
- Leave enough room for getting your coat on
inspiration
After much studying of the 2010 IKEA catalog I came up with an idea to use two tall Expedit shelves connected by shelves and closet rods of my own fabrication. I would then fill the Expedit shelves with a combination of complimentary IKEA products like the Expedit 2 drawer insert and the Lekman boxes.
I placed my order but Imagine my disappointment when I learned that the frieght was going to cost more than the actual products—effectively increasing the cost by more than double. Sigh. IKEA will only ship large particle-board items via freight and not via UPS.
If the guys at IKEA can throw together some shelves out of hollowcore doors then I can, too.
drawing it up
Drawings were done in Adobe Illustrator.
I figured I could make the shelves but I would still need the drawers. It turns out that IKEA will ship the plastic Lekman boxes via United Parcel Service. I ordered ten.
I drew up some plans using Adobe Illustrator, laying down a grid so I could make the drawing to scale. Careful study of the IKEA catalog and web site led me to making an educated deduction as the the interior dimensions necessary to accommodate the IKEA Lekman boxes.
By the time the boxes arrived I was already dry-fitting my home made shelf units. The fit was perfect.
slapping it all together
Testing the fit of the assembly in the garage.
I went to Menard's and Lowe's to price out materials. Lowe’s had better quality hollowcore bifold doors but Menard’s had their’s on sale. I was able to save about forty bucks. All of the material for the interior shelves plus the 4-foot wide shelves that span the two shelf units can all be cut from one sheet of 4x8 plywood.
Fair weather had me out cutting in the driveway using a portable workbench and a table saw on wheels. I cut the doors down so they would top-out with the existing entryway and still leave room below to line shoes up along the wall. I borrowed a biscuit joiner from my dad to aid in joining the hardwood face frames to the front edges of the bifold doors and the shelves. I used dowels to pin the shelves into the bifold doors, along with wood glue and alot of clamps.
For finish I used a water based polyurethane, but it turned out to be a nightmare as it raised the wood grain way too much. I was looking for a fast drying finish, and this stuff dried fast, but the results weren’t up to snuff. A lot of sanding ensued. Eventually the finish came together.
I mounted the two side shelf units to the wall by way of traditional cleats. Once the sides were mounted and level I was able to join the two using the 4-foot shelves and closet rods. At the eleventh hour I opted to keep the lower shelf free-floating so that as the kids get older I can raise it a touch, and then when they are tall enough to reach the upper rod I can lower it way down to open the space up for whatever modification may be useful.
hardware
Closet hooks work great for hanging all the odds and ends that come with kids and their school stuff.
I ordered some nice closet rod and special hardware from an online place that specializes in that kind of stuff. I had to cut down an eight-foot rod to fit into my two 4-foot spaces, but that saved me money over buying two rods.
One of the best buys was the chrome closet hooks I bought from Organize It. I bought four but they were so handy for the kids I bought four more. Kids have a hard time with coat hangers and the hooks are way easier for them to manage, plus the hooks hold all sorts of stuff, from backpacks to lunch bags to dog leases, purses, camera bags … you name it.
