Ever since we moved into our house, we have neglected our top floor in just about every way. It has no real furniture, needs to be painted, and mostly acts as a holder for lots of my music and electronic gadgets. When we bought the place, I had visions of this room being my music room where I could record, and practice. Then a couple of years ago I started working from home, and needed an office. I bought a few simple things such as a small desk, a new chair, and some artwork for the room. In getting ready I also painted most of the room, until I hit my wet wall which had a bad cabinet and sink attached. I held on completing that wall because I knew I wanted to redo that whole wall to something more fitting. Here begins the great wait.
Here we are over two years later, and that room is in the exact same state as when I started working from home, except for the addition of the small under the counter fridge. This summer we also saw the addition of new patio furniture for the upstairs deck off the office. It was time to get this room in order.
After being honest with myself, I realized I really didn't have the room for a full music room and office combo, so I started to get strategic with my planning with my music gear. It is ok to keep my instruments up there as all the guitars hang on the walls, however the recording console needed to be stored. In doing so I was able to lose one of the two desks up there. Since winter is upon us and we needed to protect the patio furniture, I went ahead and moved the loveseat and coffee table from outside into the office where the desk was. This gave the room a whole new feel already.
In addition I have started breaking down the wet wall. I removed the file cabinet, boxed everything up from the current cabinet, and have taken most of it away. Now onto the next part, the real design and build out.
What I have envisioned is a set of base cabinets with a new bar sink. It will include two sets of drawer cabinets, a sink cabinet, a cabinet to hold AV gear, and lastly a space for the under the counter fridge. On the counter surface there will be a bar sink, then above we will have some shelves, along with a flat screen.
I anticipate the steps to complete as follows:
- Clear room's wall of everything
- Remove drywall from needed areas
- Add power and AV cables for flat screen, and run all AV cables down to panel to be located behind cabinet which will hold gear. This includes cable feed, network feed, speaker posts, HDMI, etc..
- Run spigot to outside from water feed on wall (since the wall is down)
- Repair Wall
- Build base cabinets
- Install base cabinets
- Install counter
- Design/build shelves
- Install shelves
My first step in building the cabinets was to prove the concept (that I could actually build these things). I bought some inexpensive plywood from Home Depot, and over two weekend I was able to build my prototype. Some lessons I learned there were:
- When ripping the plywood, don't set the blade at maximum height, it tears out the plywood easier.
- Always keep track of each piece and its orientation.
- Take your time to measure often, and double check measurement calculations
- A good work surface is a must
- A jigsaw does not cut plywood as clean or straight as a circular saw, or table saw
- Do not screw in the back board of the cabinets, at least until the cabinet has been squared.
- Invest in good hinges, cheap ones make your hard work all for not if the doors won't close right.
- Stain the wood before assembly
- Be patient, very patient. Spend the time to make sure each cut is setup properly. This includes making sure blades are square, surfaces are clean, blades will meet cut lines exactly, and practice on scrap wood first until you get it right.
Starting the Build
After all of this, today I started my first cuts. I was able to rip down three sheets of plywood which yielded all cabinet sides, backs, and tops and bottoms for three cabinets. I still have left another top and bottom set, along with the pullout shelves for the AV gear.
After I complete the remaining cuts, I will need to do real panel cuts. I realized in cutting today that even though I can measure closely, take time to set everything up, it is much better to panel cut on a table saw than use a circular to make my precise panel cuts. Unfortunately my table saw just isn't big enough to cut a full sheet of plywood properly, so the circular saw was my only option. However what I realized is that I could get it mostly down to size, then finish the cuts on a table saw to make them square and precise.
My next steps will be to complete the above panel rought cuts, then take everything to the table saw to make all panels precise. Once completed there I will make the dado cuts onto each panel for assembly. Afterwhich I will apply the edge banding for the sides that will show on the cabinets so you won't see the plywood inside. I will also start to then cut the faceplates, and might even assemble them as it doesn't take long to do. If I'm flying through everything next weekend, then I'll even try to get all my door cuts completed as well.
This should leave me in a perfect place to stain the pieces during the week. This way I can put coats on at night after work, and will allow enough time to dry. As there will be several coats of stain and polyurethane, I will need the time. Then with any luck, the next weekend will be all assembly.
The only pieces I have yet to complete at this stage will be the drawers. I plan to dovetail the front of the boxes together, which will be new to me. I need to pickup a dovetail jig and bit for the router, but I look forward to learning this.
I also need to order all the hardware for assembly which includes drawer slides, and hinges for doors. I based my designs mostly on a New Yankee Workshop design I saw Norm do, and fortunately I was also able to find out the exact hardware he used for hinges and slides.
Wow, well this is definitely a lot to review, and there is still so much work. With any luck I'll be mostly complete with the base cabinets, counter, and sink in time for Christmas. I'll then work on the shelves as phase 2 of this effort.
I will be posting pictures along the way of the before/after, along with the process. The before pictures, the prototype, and my first cuts I will post next. Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment