How Would you go about this?

An interesting project. To start with you need some dim. Do you want to cover up a window? How deep is the cabinet and how deep is the protrution coming out of the wall. How high is your cabinet going to be. For a man or women. Is this all you will have to store you things. Are you going to leave it built in if and when you move. Is this a house. Is the wall a supporting wall. This is info I would like to know for the LJ’s to give you info on comstruction. Good luck
After looking again why hang it why not built it to the floor. Also just built the sides to the floor and leave the bottom open for your shoes. do you need a shelf that low to the floor?

-- Dominic, Trinity, Florida...Lets be safe out there.

From what I can see, I would build the whole thing as a free-standing unit that you could slide into place, then screw to the wall using shims as needed to account for the out-of-square situation. Then you could trim out around the perimeter with a molding of some sort to help hide the unsquare condition of the walls.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

If it is a built-in, I would go ahead and take the piece across the large vertical member in the room. You can easily disguise this bulk head with your cabinet. Tall set of shelves maybe? If you are doing face frame construction, leave yourself about 1” of overhang on the left side. This will give you the ability to scribe it to the out of square wall. 2” tapcons will give you all the holding power you need. Three piece construction, base, top, and upper casework. Just my .02 cents.

-- http://www.efcabineture.com/ "Experience is what you get, when you don't get what you want"

Sorry It took to long to get back on here work has been rediculas but anyway here are some pics I took there is a long cabinet that I am currently using that was there from my sister when she used to leave here. That is definitly too big as it has basically crushed and destroyed the old drop ceiling to fit. I will post a sketchup drawing soon with the actual dimensions as soon as I get a moment. I wanna thank everyone for the help, it is greatly appreciated.

like stated above- I would go about and make it a free standing unit, and just screw the top of it to the wall for stability – if necessary (it might not even be required with the weight of the unit and the space at hand).

-- My Drinking Club has a Woodworking Problem...

Absolutely none of my business but.. why do you live there?

I just had a peek out the window in your pics and it prompted my question.

Is it a really irreplaceable job, family, wife,traditon, what?

I just need to know.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

With the walls that far out of square, I would scribe wood “ribs” to fit the unit to the walls in a more square fashion. Making the unit free-standing and then attaching it to the ribs would allow it to be used elsewhere later. The ribs could be anchor bolted into the brick to prevent tipping or movement.

-- Rich, Seattle, WA

And Finally with the Dimensions

I was thinking of making a free standing carcase as some of you had suggested.
For the large sides of the unit (the far side by the window inparticular) needs to be about a 70” X 20” piece
I have made panels about 1/2 this size with a vacuum press but I do not have anything that would candle such a large size. Should I maybe just make two 1/2 size sheets and joint them together?

Absolutely none of my business but.. why do you live there?
I just had a peek out the window in your pics and it prompted my question.
Is it a really irreplaceable job, family, wife,traditon, what?
I just need to know.

Bob

In response to this message, Bob, it is none of your business but I have nothing to hide so here it goes.

As for the question as to why I live where I do, I live in heart of South Philadelphia. If you are not familiar with South Philly you may not understand living here but the culture the history the people the diversity is a huge part of me and the person I have become, that being said. I have my grandparents around the corner, cousins down the block, I live on bread street so I take the subway to work which is just 15 blocks away, I just finished graduate school and dont have a lot of money plus I owe about $80,000 in college and graduate school loans. I am only 26 years old and do plan on moving out of the city but not for some time. I am going to enjoy life while I am young and maybe in 10-15 years when I decide to settle down I will raise a family in the burbs, but that is a long way away and I dont know what ill be doing in the next 15 mins let alone the next 15 years.

Hey, Lupac, for the record, I’m sure Bob didn’t mean anything by it, but it struck me as kind of an odd question. The only hint I got from looking out your window is that you live in an urban area, which lots of people do, for a variety of reasons. There are million dollar apartments in NYC that have pretty much the same view as you. :-)

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I’m gonna have to agree with a couple guys here…

I would stringline it out to determine square, then like richforever said, anchor the wooden shims or “ribs” to the wall. That means that you have a flat, square surface to put a nice square cabinet to. Don’t build the cabinet out of square to fit the house. Make sure that your anchor bolts or screws (tapcon, etc) don’t extend into your neighbors house (disclaimer)... lol.

If you don’t think it’s “that” far out of square, or complicated, then you can use a level and a straight board to find the measurements for the ribs/ shims instead of a stringline.

Then build your cabinet freestanding, and screw it into the ribs. If the cabinet isn’t square against the wall, then trim it out with moulding or bead.

Build the cabinet how YOU want it, whatever design you think fits your stuff, then build it.

Remember, the “ribs” will create airspace between your cabinet’s back panel and the wall. Make sure that this is framed out all around the perimeter of the ribbing (top, bottom, sides) to ensure that mice or bugs aren’t going to find a home, plus it gives you something to nail into when you put up your molding to hide the “out of square” problem.

To make the ribs, I would just measure them out on a 2×4, and rip them. It’s much easier than it sounds, and a nice built in will really dress up that corner.

I don’t know how old that paint is in the room, but before I build ANYTHING over an existing painted wall (esp an old painted existing wall), I seal it up with KILZ primer/sealer. Maybe even two coats, depending on what I’m covering. If I even remotely think that it’s old enough to contain lead paint, then I do the entire room while I’m at it, twice, maybe three times. If you think it’s got lead in it and you’re doing construction on it, drilling, etc- wear a mask so that you can live to enjoy that house in the ‘burbs in 15yrs….

Just my 2 cents.

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Thanks Lupac.
I am always curious as to what people use to make decisions.
In your case it seems family and tradition plays and important part in your decision.

We pretty much tear down all buildings here that are not of historic significance because of the cost of bringing them up to a reasonable “green” standard.
The window construction got me thinking.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I am confused as to why you would need to veneer the sides. Are you planning on using a nice exotic ? Most domestic woods can be bought on 48×96 sheets. A free standing piece needs only a simple L shaped top plate to keep it from going frontwards or backwards. Shimming out the wall is of no need if it will not be built in. Free standing pieces are just that, free standing in what ever space you put them-in. Here is a hard lesson I learned, before you go making a behemoth cabinet, make sure you can get it through the doorways/hallways of where its going. Hence my original three piece construction suggestion.

-- http://www.efcabineture.com/ "Experience is what you get, when you don't get what you want"

Good points.. I assumed it was going to be pretty much built in place.

Here at the university where I work, our carpentry staff completed a large, one-piece storage unit in the shop. The foreman had carefully measured to make sure the thing would fit through the shop door when it was finished. Unfortunately, he forgot that once it came through the main shop doors, it had to fit through a much smaller door about 20 feet down the hall. Oops! They ended up having to cut the thing in half.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charlie- DOH!

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Charlie, did that guy ever build a boat in the basement??? <g>

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

I would just build the whole carcass of Baltic-Birch Plywood! sheets are 48”x96” so you would have no problem coming up with a couple 70×20 from a single sheet… and it’ll be more stable than gluing up your own panels for it.

-- My Drinking Club has a Woodworking Problem...

Would you please post a simple plan of the whole room with the distribution you have yet imagine (bed and other features)? And are you doing it yourself or command it?

-- Alejandro Moreno, CANARY ISLANDS