Built-in and Free
Standing Storage
Any dead air space is a candidate for the placement of a storage cabinet. The cramped entrance into this room provided a spot for a small, overhead, built-in. You can see in the photo that I had to cut the face frame pieces to match the profile of the crown molding, the only tricky part of this job.
Two design elements add interest to this bookshelf, built to hang just below the ceiling. One, it curves out a bit near the ends where it attaches to the walls. Another, to give the illusion of heft, is a 1/4" thick, 2" wide piece of trim attached to the front. Shallow kerfs cut into the inside the thin trim piece at the curves allow it to bend with the the shelf. For strength, supports at the ends are secured to wall studs and the middle is suspended in two places from ceiling joists with long, 1/4" bolts, which are hidden with wood trim pieces. I could do a chin-up on this thing.
This cabinet in the garage is attached to the roof rafters and the floor. The doors are frame and panel,made with 3/4" pine and 1/4" plywood. The sides, which you can't see in this photo, are also frame and panel, the frames made of 2x4's.
The inspiration for this corner cabinet was an old barn in Ireland featured on an old Woodwright's Shop episode where the host, Roy Underwood, showcased various structures including a an old barn. It was of timber frame construction with wide oak slats woven through the frame members to enclose the sides; basically a big basket. Imagine the beautiful old trees that were growing in the 1600's when that barn was built, large and straight grained.
This cabinet is made of the remains of a neighbor's old redwood fence. The two side columns are old fence posts that I rounded with a draw knife and sanded. The slats in the door frames are ripped from old fence boards. The shelves are plywood, stained, with a redwood edging and the back is 1/4" plywood. Before rounding the 4x4's, while they still had edges to run a router fence along, I routed 3/4" wide grooves down the length of the columns to accept the face frame pieces. A second dado was required, 120 degrees from the first, to accept a 3/4" thick, 1 1/2" inch wide strip of wood, to which the plywood back is attached. I routed this second dado after rounding the post and with the aid of a jig.
The hutch in the kitchen is similar to the corner cabinet in the photo above. Made of old redwood fence boards and the posts are rounded 4x4's. In the bottom doors, instead of weaving the slats, this time I ripped them a bit thicker and stuck the ends in kerfs sawn in the inside edges of the door's rails. The back of the upper part of the hutch is 3/4" plywood that I covered with more slats lined up vertically. On the sides of the hutch I wove the slats, like the corner cabinet. I like the slight curve on the front of the hutch's table top, where we feed the cats. The bottom and top parts were made separately and come apart for easy moves. The ridged, greenish glass in the upper doors cost more than rest of the piece, 70 bucks. The corner cabinet prototype is the little cabinet on the wall to the left of the hutch. It had been designed to hang on the end of a kitchen cabinet, but lost it's rightful place when we redid the kitchen.
Another corner cabinet with woven doors, (I'm over the woven door thing), hung on a wall in the corner of a hallway that was dead space. Clearance above the cabinet is to accomodate the folding stairs leading to the attic. I was being careless and didn't get those little green door knobs lined up very well. I like imperfections in objects which show the human touch and get carried away sometimes. I need to remember that sloppy work isn't the same as handcrafted work.
Bathroom pantry making use of the 3 1/2 inches inside a wall. For more info see Shallow Pantry in a Stud Cavity