Custom Closets

Hi everyone
I haven’t been doing alot of scrolling lately except for a class that I’ve been teaching for some of the Seniors here in Midlothian at a place called -LLI.It’s a place where seniors can go to learn all sorts of things like pottery, painting, history and I’ve been doing a class on intarsia. Been lots of fun and the participants have really had a good time watching me put together a Rose Jewelry Box.

What has really been keeping me busy is a large commission for a customer which entails building custom cabinets and shelving for their walk-in closets. Now, I don’t normally take on such a large project but I’ve done smaller projects for this customer in the past and when he said that he wanted the woodworking to- look like art, well I just couldn’t say no. So I took some measurements and drew a few sketches and they agreed on a price so here I go.

This project will use 550 bd ft of Jatoba .

Each closet will consist of a sweater cabinet,a shoe rack and shelving with rods for clothes to hang on. They selected the oil rubbed bronze rods($5 a foot) and all shelving will have decorative inlays to set it off. With this much lumber I definitely had to go into production mode .There will be lots of edge gluing of boards for the side panels and shelves so I started by setting up the router table with extentions to handle the long boards for biscuit jointing using a slot cutting bit.

These are the first 7’ x 16” glued up panels for the sweater cabinet.

Here is the first completed wall of the first closet. I’m now working on the shoe rack.

I didn’t even make it out the door after the install and she already had her sweaters in the cabinet!!!

Here is a pic of the second piece of the custom closet project that I’m working on—the shoe rack. I used 70 bf of Jatoba and it is 84” tall x 40” wide x 12” deep. The accent strips on the shelves are holly and ebony.

One more wall to go in this closet, then I’ll start on the next one and when all of the cabinets and shelves are done I’ll start on the custom hardwood floors—clear maple with purpleheart inlays done in a herringbone pattern. Should be fun

-- Mike www.midlothianwoodworks.com