Bedroom Closet Built-Ins

[Brett Bobo]

Well, it's not quite an exquisite piece of furniture but this one qualifies as functional and well-needed for additional storage space in our son's closet. The original layout was somewhat of a L-shape and it's a fairly small closet so it took some iterations to get the most out the space and still have enough walking room. It's probably not visible from the photos but there are two hanging rods on the left side of the shelving unit for clothing, along with the closet rod above the drawer unit.

Lot's of prefinished plywood and poplar so here goes...the carcases are prefinished plywood with poplar face frames and end panels. The inset drawer fronts are poplar rails and stiles with prefinished plywood panels. The shelves are mdf with poplar fronts. The drawer boxes are poplar with dovetailed sides front and back and prefinished plywood bottoms. I'm in the midst of redoing all of the trimwork upstairs so there will be some additional base at the bottom and crown molding to finish off the top.

Dimensions:
Drawer Unit: ~30"W x 20"D x 94"H (including base for 2" clearance at ceiling)
Shelving Unit: ~20"W x 14"D x 94"H

I was reminded once again how much I hate painting but I used the Sherwin-Williams Pro Classic enamel with some being sprayed, like the drawer fronts, and all final coats being rolled to get a better match with the millwork.

Any comments or criticisms welcome.

Thanks,
Brett

[Todd Burch]

Looks good Brett!

How to your drill your shelf holes?

What was the ply prefinished with? Did you use it for the drawer boxes? Was it pre-primed or pre-finished? Did you paint over it?

I make that style drawer front often, but I start with 1/2" solid stock and then "picture frame on" the 1/4" thick frame, with miters. It allows me to profile the inside edge of the "frame".

What flavor drawer boxes did you make?

Todd

[Brett Bobo]

Thanks, Todd!

I made a 8' plywood jig for the shelf pins and used a plunge router to punch them out. Having a jig was on my to-do list but as usual, I didn't get around to making one until it was required :).

Yeah, I should clarify the prefinished plywood as it's clear-finished birch plywood, not pre-primed. So, I followed my painting schedule like I normally would but the prefinished just saved me preparation time. This will only be meaningful to the rest of the Houston guys but I bought it from Mason's Mill for ~$32/sheet for 3/4" thickness. It is imported (China) and fairly unstable but when glue and screwed, it's workable and it's cheap.

The drawer boxes were made from poplar and 1/2" thick prefinished plywood for the bottoms. The boxes ended up being about 7 1/2" deep and machine dovetailed on both the fronts and backs.

Yeah, I struggled with the approach for the drawer fronts and ended up making two versions. My original version was a frame and panel build with stub tenons set into the routered grooves for the panel thickness. What I failed to account for was the gap between the back of the panel and the front of the drawer box. Instead of scabbing in a ~1/4" sheet for the back of the panel to sit flush with the front of the drawer box, I decided to re-do the drawer fronts. For round two, I did mortise and tenons for the rails and stiles but rabbeted out the back of the frames for the panels. This was more time-consuming that I had anticipated but I was happy with the results. Next time, I'll probably have a mix of option one with the frame and panel and stub tenons but with a rabbetted panel so the back of the panel flushes out with the drawer front.

[Darin German]

Looks very good Brett. I really like the style. I've been working on my master closet for almost two years off and on now but the style is very similar to yours. I can only hope that mine turns out as nice as your work. I really like the inset panels in the side of the shelving unit. Very classy.

[Brett Bobo]

Thanks, Darin! The applied panels on the side of the shelving unit were intended to match the face frame of the drawer unit so the lines continue and flow from one unit to the other. The panel on the right side of the shelving unit, which is visible in the photo was easy as it tucks behind the left stile of the drawer unit. The panel on the left side of the shelving unit, however, was a nightmare. Since the left stile of the left panel was scribed to the wall, the rails of the panel were then cut to length so the tolerance was tight. Maybe there's a simpler method but it worked out well.

Oh, I should have added that I made two sets of the applied panels! The right and left panels had rails of different lengths so when I went to assemble the panels, I inadvertently used the rails from the right side with the stiles of the left panel and vice versa. Stupid mistake so always label your parts clearly and if need be, move all non-relevant parts out of the shop so you don't reach for them! :)

[frank shic]

those drawer fronts look like they're fitted very nicely to the face frames. what size reveal did you use? looks great!

[Brett Bobo]

Hey Frank,
The size of the reveal is 3/32". The mating portion of the drawer slide on the drawer box (side mount slides) forced the 3/32" reveal somewhat but to my eye, I like that size reveal. Fortunately, it only took about 30 minutes to fit the drawer fronts so that process went smoothly this time around.

[Prashun Patel]

Brett. Looks great. I'd love to have somethign like this in my home. Nicely done.