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Hoang N Nguyen
08-08-2016, 11:25 AM
Hi all,
Just wanted to share a recent project I just finished. This was a "mother's day" gift to my wife but ended up being about a month late and I started in Feb. Granted I only work on it a few hours a night and maybe a whole weekend when I find the time.

The whole project is constructed from melamine with edge banding. Drawers were 6/4 poplar resaw to 1/2" with a melamine front. All the joinery was done with my domino, about 600-700 of them in all. Drawers joinery was done with a drawer lock bit.

The wife also came up with the great idea of putting wall paper on the backer boards which added nearly 2 weeks to the project and lots of adult language. It took a lot of time because I was only able to apply the wall paper to just one sheet of 1/4" ply at a time. I then had to rip them down to the width I needed and glue up the partial piece to a new whole sheet and repeat the process. The other part was due to the fact I've never done wall paper before so it was a slow process.

The corner pieces were a bit of a challenge since they were so big and heavy, making moving them on my own extremely difficult. I tried to assemble what I could inside the closet to reduce the amount of moving. I still had to walk it to it's final position and my back wasn't happy about it. The rounded inside corner pieces were cut on a CNC router at work, the rest was cut at home using my track saw and table saw. The trim pieces on top and bottom were also cut out on the CNC as well, there's no way I'm doing all that by hand, not even with a pattern bit. It took half an hour to cut nearly 70 pieces on the CNC, that saved me a ton of time. I tried to avoid using the CNC as much as possible, I just felt like it was cheating too much and wanted to know that I built this, not a machine.

54 slots for shoes in all and the wife said it was only enough for half of her inventory. Most of which I've never seen her wear. I'll never understand women.

Anyways, here are some pictures. Sorry if they're crappy, I used my phone and didn't have much room to get a wide shot.


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Hoang N Nguyen
08-08-2016, 11:29 AM
There's one unit that I don't have a picture with. It's just another cubby to hang clothes that I built once everything else was done. I wanted to get everything in and measure the last open space by the door to get a perfect fit. I also had to move the light switch to the outside of the closet to fit the last cubby, another reason why I waited to built it.


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Jim Becker
08-08-2016, 11:31 AM
That looks really good!

Von Bickley
08-08-2016, 11:37 AM
Looks great, but I would never let my wife see it.

Jim Tobias
08-08-2016, 12:11 PM
Very, Very Nice!!

Jim

Malcolm McLeod
08-08-2016, 12:44 PM
Looks great! ...wanna trade houses?

John TenEyck
08-08-2016, 2:55 PM
Wow, that's some nice work. I would have built one shoe cabinet and told her to get rid of all the other pairs since she never wears them anyway. Seriously, 108 pairs of shoes must qualify as some sort of addiction. Time to get her counseling - and plan what tools you're going to buy with all that new found wealth.

John

Hoang N Nguyen
08-08-2016, 3:05 PM
Thanks for all the kinds words guys.


Looks great! ...wanna trade houses?
As a matter of fact, we started building a new home just as I finished her closet. This house will go on the market after we close on the new house.


Wow, that's some nice work. I would have built one shoe cabinet and told her to get rid of all the other pairs since she never wears them anyway. Seriously, 108 pairs of shoes must qualify as some sort of addiction. Time to get her counseling - and plan what tools you're going to buy with all that new found wealth.

John

Never mind the tools, I could buy a new car with the new found wealth. A very nice car at that since most of those shoes range between $500-$1000 each. In her defense, most of these shoes were from before we had our son... She's gotten a lot better at it now.

Oh and in case anyone is wondering where the other half of her shoes are..... They're in my closet along with the rest of her clothes she couldn't fit in hers.

Malcolm McLeod
08-08-2016, 3:16 PM
..... They're in my closet along with the rest of her clothes she couldn't fit in hers.

My wife has a similar plan. She has a large closet. ...I get to keep a few small things in her 'auxiliary' closet.

Hoang N Nguyen
08-08-2016, 3:23 PM
My wife has a similar plan. She has a large closet. ...I get to keep a few small things in her 'auxiliary' closet.

I always thought we were well off with closet space since we have 2 fairly good size walk ins. Her's is about 130 sq. ft and mine slightly smaller at about 90 sq. ft. She just has so much darn stuff!! This is AFTER she gave away a truck load of stuff she no longer wears and about 1/4 of her shoes.

New house will only have 1 walk-in closet for the master but it's just over 200 sq. ft. so much bigger than what she has now. I told her we'll have to share and she gave me the stink eye and told me to use the closet in another bedroom. After that, she proceeded to tell me she already has a few design ideas in mind for "her" new closet.

Some times I wish I never picked up woodworking.