Most of us have a set of shelves that are decidedly more functional than they are fashionable. This shabby set survived the move into our new house and managed to look even shabbier sitting on our brand new tile floor and adjacent to a freshly painted wall. It only took me three years but it finally got a makeover more befitting its new station in life.
The epiphany came as I was sketching plans for a cabinet and realized that, duh, a cabinet is basically a set of shelves with a back and a door! Of course, as these things tend to go, it got a bit more complicated than that. The biggest challenge was designing the top to fit into its final resting place, which is sort of an odd-shaped knee wall nook with a slanted ceiling. I also had a large blank area on the right-hand side of the door, which turned out to be a perfect place for a series of false drawers.
All in all this project didn't cost me much. I had most of the wood lying around and only had to purchase the hardware and some of the trim pieces. The biggest disappointment is that it is tucked so far back into the upstairs bathroom that no one ever gets to see it.
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(Images: Richard Popovic)
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Wow. Speechless!
Awesome way to repurpose ugly cheap shelving units, lumber can be pretty expensive as cM custom cabinets, this is a great project for the burgeoning carpenter.
I've been trying to figure out how to do this with some shelves I have. It looks great, but the cabinet door, which has pegged half lap joints, is beyond my skill level. He suggests reusing a old cabinet door and building around it. I might try that.
Anyway, an excellent transformation.
Holy shite!
Woah, not my style but the basics of this are pretty amazing. Every time I go into Habitat I look at all the cabinet doors lining the shelves and wonder what I could do with them.
very nice.. the only thing i would like to make this better? real drawers.. i would love to have one. this would be an amazing addition or my graphic design office, for paper, supplies, etc you could even class this idea up even more with a glass insert over the shelves.. but i wish i had the talent to do this.. *high five*
excellent !!!
wow lovely!!!
Looks expensive.
amazing job!
I'm not loving it, particularly because of the fake drawers. However, I do love the effort and commend them for making something and not throwing it away or buying particle board crap. Nice job!
With so many self-congratulatory before-and-afters on the interwebz along the lines of "After much research, I turned the lampshade upside down and...TA-DA!", it is mega-refreshing to see something that is a real transformation. Reuse, imagination, problem-solving, functionality, awesome!
The best I've seen... since I don't know when! Love it.
Awesome! I would have loved real drawers too, but I realize they would have been so much more complicated to make. Anyway this is fantastic work!
It is amazing to see what creativity can achieve when you let it out. I love the idea with the blind drawers. We love the look of these drawers, but to be honest ... What kind of stuff ends up in little small drawers? Most of the time bits and nuts you don't really need or you don´t find it when you need :-)
Something IKEA boring has become a special unique furniture with personality. Thank you for sharing. It´s always a huge motivation for me to bring my own projects on!
I am totally impressed!
HOLY MOLY! :oD
Wow!!! That is SO awesome!
the best!
Ditto: WOW. Great job!
Thanks to everyone for the warm feedback. Re: false drawers, they were a result of time constraints more than anything else. Creating and framing in five little working drawers would have added many hours to the project and undoubtedly a lot more frustration. But now that the cabinet has been in use for awhile, I can say with certainty that the large open space behind them is much more useful than five little drawers would ever have been, so it all worked out in the end.
I'd love to see the cabinet in its final placement!
Why didn't I think of that?!
Because its so dramatic? Wow!
AWESOME!
Awe. Some!
Perfect!
Don't even think about trying this yourself unless you have some advanced carpentry skills
Wow!
Or just go to thrift store and buy a vintage piece. Who knows how to do all that carpentry?
I'm so impressed!