Wall unit opinions

Tom M

Well-known member
I'm planning a wall unit for my small den. I'm looking to have book/magazine/computer stuff storage. My design guidelines are that it has minimal depth, floor to ceiling storage, adjustable shelves, and include some nice & simple architectural details (and of coarse cheap). This is not to be an 18th century furniture project - can you say Kreg Jig?

The attached picture is my first design concept. My wife suggested cabinets at the top for storing old files or magazines, and I like the concept. I made the base a little under 32" high so that I can use it as a place to set things when I'm sitting in my chair. I might consider lowering this a little, but I want to make sure I have enough space in the lower cabinet to have a shelf. For exposed the middle shelves, I tried to design in a height such that I can have a couple shelves for my over-sized books, or just standard spacing.

The cabinet stiles are 4" wide which should allow for a nice molding detail either in the center or side beads on the edges. I've included them in the middle of the shelves for added support since the shelves will be about 51" long.

On one side of the picture I've drawn the doors with the same size door rails (although the upper door rails are not as wide as the lower doors), and on the other side I drew the top rail 1/2" narrower than the bottom rail. Due to the width of the doors I've kept the door stiles at 3". I think I like the same size rails a little better, but this seems opposite I've what I've always thought.

I drew the bottom of the cabinet rail (at the floor) at 5".  I could make this smaller or larger, but 5" seemed about right to me. The top will have crown molding and I'll eventually continue it around the room (standard Home Depot/Lowes type).

I haven't figured out all of the construction details but due to the size I'm thinking this will be built in 6 pieces - two sets of tops, middles and bottoms.

Since this will be painted I'm thinking of using MDF for the raised panels, but have no experience with MDF.  Seems like it would be a lot easier than planing and gluing up boards.

Any comments, criticisms, or suggestions would be appreciated.
 

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Tom, I was busy for about 3 yrs building only custom librarys. I like your ideas. I will give my 2c for what it's worth, take it or leave it. As far as rails and stiles I think your going a bit wide. I like something like 2.25/2.5 in. I think the wider will look a bit clunky. I understand your thinking on height, but again a bit low I think, may look a little out of proportion. I would def. build in sections in the shop preassembled then the final install is simple. Another idea is to leave the sides at a lower height, raise the centre base up a bit and also a bit deeper for a breakfont look. I have made these out of walnut, cherry, and paint grade. For paint I would use poplar. Making panels out of mdf is a good idea. The cut edges on raised panels need to be sanded well though. Also with the wider stiles between bookcase makes a good place for fluting. Very easy to do with a plunge router. Sounds like a good project, have fun. kerry
 
I agree with Kerry that 3" is a little wide. I did the same thing in my house, looks very similar to your drawings (thought you had seen it). You are welcome to come look at it.

I made mine out MDF except for the rails, stiles, and face frames. MDF is cheap but it's heavy and creates a LOT of dust, I hate using it. I would run the numbers, you might only save $100 using MDF over good plywood, MDF is about $35 a sheet, and last time I checked cabinet grade ply was about $75 a sheet at Pittsford lumber. With MDF you need to treat the cut edges with either thinned glue or thinned plaster then sand it to get it ready for painting. It ends up being a lot of work. For that reason I would use poplar for the rails, stiles, and face frames. Jim at Hilton Hardwoods probably has poplar wide enough to make the panels, or you would only need to glue up one piece, and you could run them through my my planer and drum sander.

Either way I think it would be the same number of man hours, but working with MDF is miserable.

Definitely making them in pieces is the way  to go. I don't think your shop is tall enough to make them in one piece. You can do a shelf span that wide. Mine are about 44" and loaded with books, and after 3+ years there still is no sag. They are a full 1" thick. for 51" I'd make them 1 1/4". (you can plane the front on a shallow angle from the bottom so they don't look heavy. And rather than fix the height drill a bunch of holes and use shelf pins. So far I've done this on all my book shelves and have moved all of the shelves at least once. Making me very happy I made them adjustable.
 
I've finished the design.  Thanks for the great input.  I went through eight iterations (pretty easy with CAD) to get to the final design. Bought the poplar and plywood yesterday and can't wait to get down in my shop!

Tom
 

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Very nice! Well done, I did something similar a few years ago and painted the panels in the back of each shelf section a contrasting paint color as a bit of accent.  I'm not saying you should have, just describing the color scheme I used.
 
My influence would probably be Queen Anne (raised panels and side-bead molding) but it is my own design with some great suggestions about stile widths, etc. My original design was based on a pine bookcase in Gene Landon's house, but my wife suggested the upper doors. Feedback from the forum led me to thin the rails and stiles considerably. I wanted a historic type of color, and used several "Colonial" home type books as reference (the flash picture doesn't give a good representation of the color as I see it).

I've seen door latches like these on mostly kitchen-type colonial cabinets, but I made a mock-up and really liked the look and they're fun to use - they were all hand-shaped with a chisel. I had a small box of un-plated flat head screws which were perfect.

This is definitely a "Hybrid" bookcase.  All joinery is Kreg jig, and the raised panels are MDF. But the side beads were all done with a molding plane, and all poplar parts (face frame and door frames) were hand-planed. Painting was by far the most time consuming. And I also found that when you leave 1/4" side clearance and 1" ceiling clearance you didn't leave enough...
 
Looks great Tom. But by finishing you projects your making me look bad!

How the W&M dressing table coming along  :)?
 
Tim,
It's aging nicely on the shelf, just like the card table, arm chair, and mirror. Thanks for asking.

Pam,
I can reach top cabinets, and I have a special stick to prop the doors open when using.
 
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