Tom5151

Hello all,

I have a question about some built-shelves we are looking to build in our bedroom at our little cabin up north.

Currently, the wall you see pictured below has a 24 inch deep closet behind it that runs just about the whole length of the wall. We want to essentially re-construct it to be half closet and half built in shelves with doors. There will be an upper and lower compartment to the shelf space with 2 or 3 shelves in each compartment. The plan is to build a partition wall to separate the space in half.

The framing part is pretty easy I think. It’s building the built-ins that I am not so sure about. The finished wall surface in the bedroom will be T&G pine. The inside of the built in will likely be cabinet grade plywood and the shelves made from the same material.


I have a couple questions:

1. When I install the back to front side panels and the top and bottom panels for inside the built-in onto the 2X4 frame, do I want the outer edge of those panels to stick out ¾ of an inch past the 2X4s to allow for the thickness of the T&G? Kind of like extension jambs on windows?
2. My second question is what is the best way to hang doors on this? The edge of all the plywood panel sides will eventually be covered by trim around the entire outside perimeter of the built-in. Can I just mount hinges right into that trim and make the doors flush? I am just not sure the best way to do that. Any advice would be much appreciated. I am assuming face frames would not be a good application here?

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cabinetman

Why not let the plywood finish flush with the 2x4's, and then face it off with the T&G. I'm assuming that will be the face material between the closet and the cabinet. For this to finish off right, you would have to cut off the T & G and wind up with a square edged piece around the cabinet.

You can mount the doors with euro hinges right to the plywood, and the door face would be flush to the T&G.

Tom5151

Thank you sir......

That would work.........so essentially to finish it off I'd basically have a 3/4 by 3/4 solid peice of wood around the whole cabinet, correct? And then maybe just a middle wood rail for the middle frame member?

cabinetman

In finishing it off, consider the front faces of the wall between the closet and the cabinet, and the wall to the right of the cabinet. If you are putting T&G on all the surfaces surrounding the closet, then the width between the closet and the cabinet and the width to the right of the cabinet should be faced with the T&G.

I'm assuming you will be constructing a 2x4 stud wall between the closet and the cabinet, and a like wall for the right side of the cabinet. If you line the inside wall (to the right of the cabinet) with 3/4" ply, and have a stud width, and then face the outside with 3/4" T&G, the front face of that wall will be 5". That's how much fascia we are talking about.

For the outside and inside corners of where the T&G meet (like the front edge, you could use a 90 degree corner cap moulding, and where the T&G meets the back wall you could use a 1/4 round or an inside cove moulding. Those mouldings are standard box store mouldings.

Tom5151

Hello sir,

I am slow so I had to read and re-read.......lol

I think what I forgot to mention is that I am going to run the T&G horizontally in the room. In that case I don't need to cut off the T&G. I could just cut the lengths to fit between the closet and shelf and to the right of the shelf. Do you think that would look okay? I mean you'd essentially be looking at the end grain of the T&G on both sides of the shelf unit. I was originally thinking about extending the plywood panels 3/4 of an inch past the 2X4 (jamb extensions basically); butting the T&G right up to the edge of the plywood and then applying some type of casing around the whole unit.

You have far more experience than I so if my idea sucks, just let me know....lol

cabinetman

I would run the plywood out flush with the 2x4's. I would cut a trim piece as a casing and butt the horizontal T&G to the trim. I would make the trim at least 1 1/2" wide. If the trim finishes flush with the plywood, you could use a full inset euro hinge (cup style) and finish the face of the doors flush with the face of the trim.

Tom5151

got it...thank you again sir.........you made what was a total puzzle to me in the begining seem very doable for me now......I appreciate your help.

I am still not quite sure how to approach the right side of the shelf unit. There is going to be so little width out there I may just have to cut small peices of T&G and butt that against the trim peice. I can figure that part out I think. The part you really helped with was what you described above....thanks again.....

cabinetman

There are a few ways to treat the right vertical corner. I'll list them in the order of their difficulty.

You could stop the 3/4" T&G at the corner for both the side and the front. You'll have short pieces on the front. In the 3/4" x 3/4" gap install a 3/4" square piece vertically as a corner treatment.

Or, just as above, and instead of a square piece, make a 3/4" corner round and install in the gap. The safest way of doing this is to rout the corner round off a wider board, and then rip off the moulding taking into account for the sawblade width. The moulding will be the waste piece from the cut. Take the cut from a longer than needed board, because the end of the cut may leave a little tab that might remain if the piece breaks off.

Or, miter the side pieces to the short front pieces, cutting the short piece off the end of the side pieces so the grain will follow around the corner.

Tom5151

would it look goofy if I took a wimpy approach and just overlapped the front T&G over the T&G on the side so that they were flush and then come back and do the same with two vertical peices of 1X3 on the outside corner floor to ceiling? that would probabaly look a little goofy huh?

cabinetman

It would look a bit goofy. This would be less goofy. Make sure the inside legs are at least 3/4", preferably 7/8".

Tom5151

I think I like one of your original ideas better. Does this capture it?

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cabinetman

Yes it does. If we did this any faster it would be a chat.

Tom5151

LOL....we're good.............thank you again for all of your help. This really has helped a lot.

evapman

Hi,
May a long time lurker ask a quick question?
Where do you get the pics to post as examples? the corner cut away is pretty cool.
Thanks for any replys,
back to my corner. lol

Tom5151

lots of different tools to make skecthes........google Sketchup is one and it's free. The quick sketches I made above were with MS Publisher....

Jordy3738

Just looking at the drawing, how wide is that proposed cabinet? The width of the area will help determine how the doors should be mounted.

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