Closet to Cabinet

This is one of my more recent projects, I am unsure of the inspiration for this one aside from the fact that I love the small of aromatic cedar. It started out as a linen closet which had a single slab door which filled the opening. I gutted the closet back to the plaster and raise the top of the opening then started building from there.

In an attempt to save space I did not make a frame for the base or the top, I built directly in to the opening and shimmed the slides to make them squre with the front wall.

The drawers are full extesion slides 24 inches deep, the drawers are dovetailed with an attached face. the fronts are brown maple with pine sides.

The top has maple doors, with interior shelves made of reclaimed pine (they were the same shelves in closet prior to the build). Inside the upper cabinet is lined with 1/4” aromatic cedar.

The worst part of this project was hanging the drawers, for anyone thinking about a project which involves full extension slides I would recommend leaving loads of time to do it. to make this job easier I would recommend a little trick a cabinet maker friend of mine uses: get a scissor jack from a old vehicle build a base and top, cover it with carpet and use it to support heavy objects at the exact height you want. You can also use your cordless drill raise and lower the jack and a fast rate saving your cranking arm.

The piece is finished with 3 coats of high gloss polyurethane.

-- Derek Tay, Venerate the Tree Design