# Murphy Bed Side Cabinets



## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Getting Started*

After getting my Murphy bed installed it is time to turn my attention to the side cabinets. I am going to use the basic plans that came with the Murphy bed hardware kit but will be needing to make some modifications.

One of the major changes will be adapting the upper part of the cabinet to use an antique leaded glass door that my SO retrieved from an old house when she lived in northern Ohio.










The other challenge will be modifying the right cabinet to account for a heat/ac vent that will be directly under the right hand cabinet.

It has been suggested by my friend Chris Davis to cut some slots in the kick panel to let the air out and I have given this some thought but since the lower part of the cabinet is going to contain drawers and this vent is the only heat/ac source for this room I think I have a different approach in mind.

I have found a low profile "vent extender" that only sits about 1 1/2 inches off the floor and will extend up to 15 inches in length so I can match the profile of the "vent extender" in the base molding of the cabinet and direct all of the air into the room and not have any air blowing up into the cabinet or against any of the cabinet parts.

I am going to clean the shop up today and start going over my cut lists and making sure I have enough sheet goods to get all of the outside cabinet parts out of the material I already have.

I hope to start making saw dust by the end of the week on these cabinets.

I appreciate all of the comments that everyone has given me. Since I am a fairly new member here at LJ it sure makes me feel welcome.

Thanks again.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Getting Started*
> 
> After getting my Murphy bed installed it is time to turn my attention to the side cabinets. I am going to use the basic plans that came with the Murphy bed hardware kit but will be needing to make some modifications.
> 
> ...


cool doors


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Sanding Leaded Glass Doors*

Well after a few days of not doing anything I got back in the shop today and did some clean up work. After that I started working on the leaded glass doors that I will be using in the side cabinets that will fit up next to the Murphy Bed I just finished.

My first thought was to run the doors thru my 16-32 drum sander but after studying on that for a while I decided that since these doors are to our best guess around 100 yrs old it would not be good to take any chance of bumping or stressing the doors and breaking the glass.

I removed the knobs, spring latches, and hinges making sure I marked the hinges so that they go back in the original locations. As for the knobs and latches I will more than likely use new ones to match the hardware on the drawers and Murphy Bed.

I did check and these doors are very flat and have no warp in them so I got out the ROS and started at 100 grit and began to remove the finish. For the profile I used a combination of card scraper, mouse sander and sanding sponges.

After three or four hours I had the doors down to bare wood and looking like they were just made with the exception of the leaded glass.

I will set them aside and tomorrow start cutting the main parts of the cabinets.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Sanding Leaded Glass Doors*
> 
> Well after a few days of not doing anything I got back in the shop today and did some clean up work. After that I started working on the leaded glass doors that I will be using in the side cabinets that will fit up next to the Murphy Bed I just finished.
> 
> ...


Hey Gene
Great save.


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## cabinetmaster (Aug 28, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Sanding Leaded Glass Doors*
> 
> Well after a few days of not doing anything I got back in the shop today and did some clean up work. After that I started working on the leaded glass doors that I will be using in the side cabinets that will fit up next to the Murphy Bed I just finished.
> 
> ...


Sounds like it got some good doors there. Can't wait to see them installed on the new cabinets.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Side Pieces Cut - Shelves & Dividers*

Yesterday I cut the side verticals of both the left and right cabinets. I then matched them up as to what sides I wanted for the inside and outside of each cabinet and routed 1/4×3/8 rabbits on each piece for the backs.










Then I cut all of the dividers and shelves to width and length.

Since I am making some alterations to the plans to accommodate my antique doors I wanted to see how things were going to look. These cabinets are too narrow to use a double door and too wide for just one of the leaded glass doors so after studying on it for a while I have come up with what I think is going to be a pretty good solution.

I am going to use one door on each cabinet and so as not to have a face frame with a 4" wide stile I am going to make a frame for each door so that the doors will look like they are in a picture frame. If I attach a frame 1 1/2 wide around the entire door the proportions will remain the same but the door will be 3" larger in both directions and I can then make a face frame that will me normal size and I can make use of the full interior of the cabinet.

I am going to have 3 drawers that are 5 1/2 deep in the bottom of the cabinet with a slide out tray above them. I will then have a 10" open shelf and above that a 3" deep jewelery drawer just below the upper shelves that have the door on them.










Should be a challenging project as this will be my first attempt to actually design something and make a major alteration to a plan.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Side Pieces Cut - Shelves & Dividers*
> 
> Yesterday I cut the side verticals of both the left and right cabinets. I then matched them up as to what sides I wanted for the inside and outside of each cabinet and routed 1/4×3/8 rabbits on each piece for the backs.
> 
> ...


good start


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Gene47 said:


> *Side Pieces Cut - Shelves & Dividers*
> 
> Yesterday I cut the side verticals of both the left and right cabinets. I then matched them up as to what sides I wanted for the inside and outside of each cabinet and routed 1/4×3/8 rabbits on each piece for the backs.
> 
> ...


Gene, this looks pretty good. It is always good to "stretch" ourselves by tackling a challenging project. That is how we grow and develop as woodworkers.


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Side Pieces Cut - Shelves & Dividers*
> 
> Yesterday I cut the side verticals of both the left and right cabinets. I then matched them up as to what sides I wanted for the inside and outside of each cabinet and routed 1/4×3/8 rabbits on each piece for the backs.
> 
> ...


Waiting to see how it turns out. 
iGreat effort!


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Leaded Glass Doors with new picture frame trim*

It has been a while since I have been in the shop. Once the rain stopped I need to spend several days catching up with all the outside work that needed to be done.

Today I was able to get in the shop and mill up some stock to build my picture frame trim that will go around both of the leaded glass doors to make them 3 inches larger and not loose and proportions. By doing this I will have one door for each side cabinet and will be able to use a normal face frame and maximize the interior space of the upper part of each cabinet.

I cut all of the stock to rough size leaving about .010 proud on the thickness so that once they are assembled I can run them through the drum sander and make sure I have both doors flat and the new frame pieces are perfectly smooth.

Each door had a lip on one edge that was used when both doors were in the same cabinet so I set the table saw up and trimmed the lip off of each door then I turned each door around and trimmed the other edge to remove the mortise that was for the old hinges. After that I put my cross cut sled on the saw and lightly trimmed each end to make sure they were square with the sides and to get booth doors exactly the same length.

Once the doors were trimmed down and the same size I got out my Osborne EB3 miter guage and cute 45's on each end of all my rail and style pieces. I then measured and marked the other end of the styles to cut the 45's on each of those. Once all those were cut I marked the rails and cut each one proud and slowly trimmed to fit.



















After I was satisfied with the fit I marked each one and cut 2 "#0" biscuit slots on each face of the door and on each rail and style to match.

After doing another dry assembly I then applied glue and assembled the frame on the door. I used a band clamp to hold the frame in position and then applied moderate side and end clamp pressure to hold until the glue sets up.



















Tomorrow I am going to cover the glass on each side with cardboard and set up the drum sander
and run each door through until flat and smooth. After a little touch up with the ROS I should have them ready to stain and will then be able to move on to assembling the cabinets.


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## BigBard (Jan 19, 2009)

Gene47 said:


> *Leaded Glass Doors with new picture frame trim*
> 
> It has been a while since I have been in the shop. Once the rain stopped I need to spend several days catching up with all the outside work that needed to be done.
> 
> ...


Excellent fit!


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Leaded Glass Doors with new picture frame trim*
> 
> It has been a while since I have been in the shop. Once the rain stopped I need to spend several days catching up with all the outside work that needed to be done.
> 
> ...


looking good. look forward to more


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## wwbeds (Jul 1, 2007)

Gene47 said:


> *Leaded Glass Doors with new picture frame trim*
> 
> It has been a while since I have been in the shop. Once the rain stopped I need to spend several days catching up with all the outside work that needed to be done.
> 
> ...


It's about time you got back in the shop. I've been waiting to see more. LOL. Great job!


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Leaded Glass Doors - Cabinet Work*

Today I took both doors out of the clamps and ran them through the drum sander to get them smooth and flat. I am very pleased with the way these doors turned out. Once they were sanded smooth it was pretty difficult to even see where I had added the new rails and stiles to increase the length and width.

Here are the doors after the sanding and laying side by side.










After that I put the cabinet top and bottom shelf in and temporarily screwed them in place. I then made a mock up of a face frame out of MDF to see how the door will look on the cabinet.



















I had orginally thought of running a face frame all the way around the cabinet but by doing so it was going to present some issues with drawers as well as an open shelf that I wanted to have below the upper part of the cabinet.

After looking at the mock up I decided that I would only put the face frame on the upper portion of the cabinet that will have the door. There will then be an open shelf of about 10" in height below that section followed by a slide out tray type drawer and then 3 full width drawers that will be about 6" deep below the tray.

Here is a picture of the cabinet with the face frame in position and with the dividers that will make the upper shelf and the space for the slide out tray.



















Once the false fronts are on the tray drawer and the lower drawers it should make the face frame less likely to stand out like it does in these pictures.

I felt that I just would lose too much drawer width as well as have issues with mounting the drawer slides by running the face frame all the way down. I am not sure if this is accepted practice but I am going to give it a shot and see how it goes.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Leaded Glass Doors - Cabinet Work*
> 
> Today I took both doors out of the clamps and ran them through the drum sander to get them smooth and flat. I am very pleased with the way these doors turned out. Once they were sanded smooth it was pretty difficult to even see where I had added the new rails and stiles to increase the length and width.
> 
> ...


Hey Gene
Looks like it's coming together. Interesting approach.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

Gene47 said:


> *Leaded Glass Doors - Cabinet Work*
> 
> Today I took both doors out of the clamps and ran them through the drum sander to get them smooth and flat. I am very pleased with the way these doors turned out. Once they were sanded smooth it was pretty difficult to even see where I had added the new rails and stiles to increase the length and width.
> 
> ...


This may not be the accepted way to build a cabinet but I had a strong incentive to use these doors some how and some way in this cabinet. (I get to stay in the house if I do) I also only had so much space in the room where I installed the Murphy Bed and needed the cabinets to be the same on each side. If my space restrictions were better I could have built a cabinet that would have used both doors. This way I still have 2 doors that I can use in another project at some time in the future.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Construction Delay - Shop Upgrade and Outside activities.*

It has been a few days since I have been able to work on the cabinets. I did some shopping for drawer material and in the process found some wood that will look like mahogany when stained and did not cost an arm and a leg. I am going to use it for the upper face frame as well as the false fronts for the drawers.

Since I am an ex-truck driver and live in a rural area I have a friend that farms and about this time of year I help out hauling his grain to the elevator so that has started and I hauled 3 days last week before the rain put a halt to things but it looks like we will be back in business sometime today.

In the mean time I got had put an order in for some new rails for my Grizzly table saw and those arrived this week also.

So for the last couple of days I have been modifying the shop a little. I installed the new 7' rails and legs and then wanted to upgrade my out feed table and add a table in the open space of the new rails.

My old out feed table was a single sheet of melamine covered particle board and had developed a bow. I took it off and installed some mounting cleats around the outside of the cabinet to replace the small angle brackets that I originally used with some 2×2 mounting cleats. I mounted the plywood from the under side and then cut a sheet of 3/4 MDF to install on top of the plywood that can be replaced when ever I need to. I used three pieces and placed them to correspond with the location of the miter slots on the table saw and then put a 45 degree on the edges. I also made a frame for to attach to the new extension rails and put in a 3/4 MDF top on the right side of the saw.

I put on 2 coats of Arm-R-Seal and let it dry and then a heavy coat of Johnson's past wax to keep glue from sticking and to give me a nice slick surface.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Construction Delay - Shop Upgrade and Outside activities.*
> 
> It has been a few days since I have been able to work on the cabinets. I did some shopping for drawer material and in the process found some wood that will look like mahogany when stained and did not cost an arm and a leg. I am going to use it for the upper face frame as well as the false fronts for the drawers.
> 
> ...


Hey Gene 
Looks super. This will make work much easier.


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Construction Delay - Shop Upgrade and Outside activities.*
> 
> It has been a few days since I have been able to work on the cabinets. I did some shopping for drawer material and in the process found some wood that will look like mahogany when stained and did not cost an arm and a leg. I am going to use it for the upper face frame as well as the false fronts for the drawers.
> 
> ...


Good thinking about making room for the mitre slots on the run -out table…that is the sort of thng I'd forget about undtil I wnt to use the saw..LOL!


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## cabinetmaster (Aug 28, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Construction Delay - Shop Upgrade and Outside activities.*
> 
> It has been a few days since I have been able to work on the cabinets. I did some shopping for drawer material and in the process found some wood that will look like mahogany when stained and did not cost an arm and a leg. I am going to use it for the upper face frame as well as the false fronts for the drawers.
> 
> ...


Great looking improvements. I had a saw just like that when I had my own cabinet shop. Did the same thing you did. Made it nice to handle everything yourself when no one around to help you.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Long Time Away From Shop *

Well it has been been over 15 days since I last had a chance to work in the shop. In that time I have hauled 47,000 bu of wheat for a Farmer friend of mine over to the grain elevator in Memphis Tn.

With a few days early on of some rain that kept him out of the field he was able to harvest enough ahead to keep me busy running the trucks on those days.

I was anxious to get back out tomorrow and start to get my bearings again and make some saw dust when I hit a door jam with a bare foot this morning and broke a toe. I guess that will keep me off my feet for a day or two but I think I can spend a few hours in the shop before the foot pain will drive me back to the recliner.

I am anxious to get this project moving again and will as soon as possible.


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## Bureaucrat (May 26, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Long Time Away From Shop *
> 
> Well it has been been over 15 days since I last had a chance to work in the shop. In that time I have hauled 47,000 bu of wheat for a Farmer friend of mine over to the grain elevator in Memphis Tn.
> 
> ...


Bummer on the toe! I hate when that happens. Looking forward to your next installment.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

Gene47 said:


> *Long Time Away From Shop *
> 
> Well it has been been over 15 days since I last had a chance to work in the shop. In that time I have hauled 47,000 bu of wheat for a Farmer friend of mine over to the grain elevator in Memphis Tn.
> 
> ...


Yeah the toe thing is a bummer and when it happened all kinds of things came out of my mouth.

```
!#$%^&^%$#
```
 which got my dogs so upset they tried to bite me. LOL


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Design Changes and Progress*

Well after a long absense from the shop, every now and then life gets in the way of what we really want to do, I got back in the shop and for about the 3rd or 4th time modified the design of the side cabinets.

Originally I had planned on 3 drawers, one pull out writing desk type drawer, one open shelf and 2 upper shelves behind a door made from a very old leaded glass door.

I did decide to make the drawers out of pre-finished and pre-cut plywood blanks and after purchasing the material I started making up drawer parts.










Once all the parts were cut to size and as you can see I did make some test drawers, I chose a interlocking rabbit and daddo to join the sides. It was about this time that I discovered that I had enough material and room in the cabinet to put in 5 drawers along with the slide out writing tray so the design made an update.










After cutting all of the blanks and making the setups and cutting all of the rabbits and daddos I began to assemble the drawers.



















After getting all of the drawers assembled I calculated the location of the drawers and made some spacers to align my slides to and started installing.

Here is the cabinet with the drawers and sliding tray in place.










There is still more to do on the writing tray. I intend to make some keepers to hold another piece of 3/4 material that will have a 1/4 glass top and will be able to slide out towards the side once the drawer is fully extended.










I also put the upper face frame in place with clamps and when the false drawer fronts are on they will be flush with the face frame of the upper part of the cabinet.


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## Bureaucrat (May 26, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Design Changes and Progress*
> 
> Well after a long absense from the shop, every now and then life gets in the way of what we really want to do, I got back in the shop and for about the 3rd or 4th time modified the design of the side cabinets.
> 
> ...


Gene: Good to see you are back at it. thanks for the post.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Design Changes and Progress*
> 
> Well after a long absense from the shop, every now and then life gets in the way of what we really want to do, I got back in the shop and for about the 3rd or 4th time modified the design of the side cabinets.
> 
> ...


Looks good Gene


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## wwbeds (Jul 1, 2007)

Gene47 said:


> *Design Changes and Progress*
> 
> Well after a long absense from the shop, every now and then life gets in the way of what we really want to do, I got back in the shop and for about the 3rd or 4th time modified the design of the side cabinets.
> 
> ...


I've missed your post. Glad your back making sawdust. I like the design change. You can never had too many drawers.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Drawer Fronts and Drawers Completed*

Well I am making some progress abeit that it is slow. I was in limbo wondering what I was going to do for the false drawer front material. I am trying to keep my cost down and really didn't want to purchase mahogany to make the fronts out of. I was browsing around one of the hardwood stores that I purchaase from over in Memphis and got to talking to one of the sales reps and told him what I was trying to do and he put me on a species of wood that I had never used before and said that after I stained it would be hard to tell from real mahogany.

The wood he suggested is obechee and since the price was only $.95/bf I figured I could not go too far off giving it a try. I purchased enough to do the upper face frame, and all of the drawer fronts for less than $20.00. First thing I did when I got it home was get a small piece and put some mahogany stain on it and I think I am going to like the final result.

So after milling up what I needed I cut an ogee profile on the front of each blank as well as around the face of the leaded glass doors and got busy putting them on.










I also finished up my sliding pull out tray/writing table and only have to get a 1/4" piece of glass to go on the top of the piece that slides right and left.



















I still have to edge band the upper adjustable shelf and cut the back along with making the front for the pull out sliding tray.

I am going to have to glue up a piece for the sliding tray false front but kind of planned on that from the start since I didn't want to buy another board. I wil have enough from the cutoff of the drawer fronts to make those fronts.

All in all I am pretty pleased with the outcome. Once I get the back cut I can move this one to a corner and start assembling the other one. I have been cutting blanks and for the second one as I go but do not have room to assemble both units at the same time. Boy how I wish I had made the shop twice as big as I did. LOL










I am sure that the second cabinet will go together faster since I have been making spacer blocks and guages as I went on the first one. Maybe by the first of the week I will have both assembled and can get the sanding done and start cleaning up so I can finish these babies.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Drawer Fronts and Drawers Completed*
> 
> Well I am making some progress abeit that it is slow. I was in limbo wondering what I was going to do for the false drawer front material. I am trying to keep my cost down and really didn't want to purchase mahogany to make the fronts out of. I was browsing around one of the hardwood stores that I purchaase from over in Memphis and got to talking to one of the sales reps and told him what I was trying to do and he put me on a species of wood that I had never used before and said that after I stained it would be hard to tell from real mahogany.
> 
> ...


Looks super so far.


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Side Cabinets Ready to Prep for Finish*

Today was a good day. I managed to get the side cabinets for the murphy bed fiinished and all I need to do now is but some edge banding on the adjustable shelves sand and prep for finishing.

I know that at the moment it looks like a hodge podge of material but the face frame and drawer fronts are made of Obeechee and upon the suggestion of a man at the lumber supply place I was told that this wood would stain up and look like Mahogany.

I did stain a test piece and it looked like it was going to be ok.

I used some oak on the murphy bed and after applying my stain it blended pretty good with the Mahogany Panels so I am feeling pretty good about how the stained glass doors will look when I get them finished.

I have the cabinets setting on the wrong side of each other in the shop as the doors are going to open up from the center not the outside.










I also liked the way the slide out trays finished up and after I get the glass tops on them they will not tilt like they do now when pulled out.










After going through a couple of design changes I am happy that I went with the extra drawer instead of the open shelf above the sliding tray. Open shelves have a habit of getting full of clutter and with a drawer at least you can put it out of sight.



















I am hoping I can get the finish prep done in the next couple of days and get them stained by next week.

I am getting close to running out of time as my friend that I haul grain for is getting close to having rice ready to harvest and once that starts I will be tied up with rice, then soybeans until October.

I also need the weather to help out some. When I sprayed the Murphy bed the humidity was extremely high and I had some problems with getting the finish I wanted and so far we have had one of the wettest Julys on record and humidity has been very high. So we shall see how things go in the next couple of weeks.


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## Kindlingmaker (Sep 29, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Side Cabinets Ready to Prep for Finish*
> 
> Today was a good day. I managed to get the side cabinets for the murphy bed fiinished and all I need to do now is but some edge banding on the adjustable shelves sand and prep for finishing.
> 
> ...


I too like the drawers a lot! Good look'n cabinets!


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## Gene47 (Apr 16, 2009)

*Finished all but the Molding *

Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room.

Tomorrow is the start of rice harvest and I am going to be tied up for quite some time frist with hauling rice then it will be soybeans so will not have much shop time for the next 6 to 8 weeks.

At frist there wasn't much need to worry about when I got them finished but it seems that our granddaughter is going to be staying and going to school here for the next coupe of years. So all of a sudden we needed storage space and quick.

I am happy to have them done to this point and they are usuable with the only thing left to do is installing crown and base molding. That can be done after harvest. LOL

Over all I am pretty pleased with the outcome of this entire project. I hindsight I would make a couple of chages.

The first would be to adjust the bed to make it higher off the floor when opened, second I would make the case for the bed deeper so as to be able to handle a headboard shelf and by doing that I would be able to make the cabinets deeper and then one of or even both could have a clothes rod for using with hangers.
The way it is now the cabinets are about 2 inches shallow for using clothes hangers.





































I am very happy with the way the old leaded glass doors worked on this project and how it adds to the look of the whole bed and cabinet combo.

I have enjoyed making this and as I said I have made a number of notes so that the next one ( which I am sure there is going to be, I have lots of relatives) I can improve on the over all function of the bed and cabinets.

Thanks for all the comments and look forward to what I might build next as always.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Finished all but the Molding *
> 
> Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room.
> 
> ...


Very cool Gene looks amazing


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## FlWoodRat (Sep 12, 2007)

Gene47 said:


> *Finished all but the Molding *
> 
> Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room.
> 
> ...


Gene,

Beautiful job. Enjoy the harvest and the grand daughter.
Bruce


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Finished all but the Molding *
> 
> Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room.
> 
> ...


Beautiful job, Gene.


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## huff (May 28, 2009)

Gene47 said:


> *Finished all but the Molding *
> 
> Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room.
> 
> ...


Gene, Makes a very impressive wall. The leaded glass doors really sets it off. Great Job.


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## Bureaucrat (May 26, 2008)

Gene47 said:


> *Finished all but the Molding *
> 
> Hooray, just in the nick of time I got these cabinets finished and in the room.
> 
> ...


Great job Gene.


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