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I call this my "first veneering project" because that's what it felt like doing.
When we had the 2nd room bath renovated last summer (during which I made this vanity), I had no idea what to do with the existing 70's-era built-in linen closet. So apart from removing the doors with the cheesy hardware, we pretty much left it untouched (though knowing that I was going to work on it at some point). In the following months it even served as storage for a lot of my tools as I was renovating the other rooms.
I eventually came up with a simple solution that would allow me to reuse the plywood carcase (which would have required a major effort to remove from its place) and just give the whole thing a facelift. And here's the almost finished project (urethane coat still needs buffing):
Either the bathroom is really small or my camera has mediocre zoom or both, because this is the best full-length pic that I can take.
The top part will store towels and toiletries. The bottom will house the hamper.
The carcase:
I started by removing the old face frames, fixed shelves (which were nailed in from the sides), and the cleats that held the removable shelves. Then I lined the entire interior with 3/4" MDF, spackled the screw holes and corners and primed and painted it. I did this for two reasons: (1) The unpainted areas of the old plywood had this really weird smell (like if plywood had body odor, that's probably what it would be like
); (2) I wanted to build up the thickness so I'd have more surface area to glue the new face frame on to.
I pocket-screwed two fixed shelves into the sides. The pockets will be spackled and the shelves will be painted.
The face frame:
I wanted some consistency in the woodwork, so I decided to use the same material that I had used in the vanity project. I used 5/4 stock planed down to 7/8". I pocket-screwed and glued the face frame together. Now, I had always known that my walls were not perfect, but really had no idea just how bad until I scribed it onto the stiles. See for yourself in this WIP pic:
For those interested, here's the sequence of steps that I followed for scribing:
1.) Ripped the stiles about 1/2" oversize (as you can see from the pic above, this was a good call)
2.) Cross-cut the stiles for a good friction fit between the floor and ceiling.
3.) Dry-fit the stiles against the walls, making sure the inside edges are plumb.
4.) Scribed the wall onto the stiles. I used the "washer trick". Panga panga is a very dark wood, so I used a metallic-ink pen.
5.) Jigsawed to the scribed lines. I used a fine blade (20 TPI) which wandered way off 90 so I ended up having to square the cut. I used a flush-trimming bit with a top-mounted bearing guide, using the top 1/16" of the stile's thickness as a "template".
6.) Dry-fit the stiles again, then measured the rails.
I did not bother to scribe the top and bottom rails off the ceiling and floor since any gap was going to be covered by the crown and base molding (I did scribe the crown molding off the sloped soffit and bandsawed it to fit). I routed the top molding with a 1/2"-R cove bit and the base molding with a 1/2"-R roundover bit.
The face frame is attached to the carcase with glue and 15-gauge nails.
The doors:
For the doors, I went for an inset look to match the inset drawers on the vanity. I used M&T's to join the frame members. After all the adjustments, I ended up with a 3/32" gap around the opening, a little over the 1/16" that I was shooting for. After sanding the joints flush, I routed a rabbet around the inside edges of the frame. The glass, which I ordered 1/8" undersized in length and in width, is held in the rabbet by four mitered strips of wood. The glass has a "hammered copper" texture, which LOML really likes (although I think the trade name "Hammered Glass" was a pretty bad marketing decision). It comes in 3/32" thickness.
I used Blum cup hinges to hang the door. I screwed shims on the carcase side so the carcase part of the hinge would be flush with the face frame opening.
I used the same knobs as the ones on the vanity.
The finish:
I have applied 3 coats of spar urethane and have yet to buff it out with paste wax on 0000 steel wool.
What I'd do differently if I were to do it again:
I used roughly 8 BF of panga panga and about 2 sheets of MDF for this project. Here in Chicago, this wood is about $12/BF.
I just used good ol' Titebond II for adhesive as these were very simple joints that did not require extended open time.
I ordered the "Hammered Glass" from Torstenson, a local Chicago glass shop that has been around for 110 years.
When we had the 2nd room bath renovated last summer (during which I made this vanity), I had no idea what to do with the existing 70's-era built-in linen closet. So apart from removing the doors with the cheesy hardware, we pretty much left it untouched (though knowing that I was going to work on it at some point). In the following months it even served as storage for a lot of my tools as I was renovating the other rooms.
I eventually came up with a simple solution that would allow me to reuse the plywood carcase (which would have required a major effort to remove from its place) and just give the whole thing a facelift. And here's the almost finished project (urethane coat still needs buffing):
Either the bathroom is really small or my camera has mediocre zoom or both, because this is the best full-length pic that I can take.
The top part will store towels and toiletries. The bottom will house the hamper.
The carcase:
I started by removing the old face frames, fixed shelves (which were nailed in from the sides), and the cleats that held the removable shelves. Then I lined the entire interior with 3/4" MDF, spackled the screw holes and corners and primed and painted it. I did this for two reasons: (1) The unpainted areas of the old plywood had this really weird smell (like if plywood had body odor, that's probably what it would be like
); (2) I wanted to build up the thickness so I'd have more surface area to glue the new face frame on to. I pocket-screwed two fixed shelves into the sides. The pockets will be spackled and the shelves will be painted.
The face frame:
I wanted some consistency in the woodwork, so I decided to use the same material that I had used in the vanity project. I used 5/4 stock planed down to 7/8". I pocket-screwed and glued the face frame together. Now, I had always known that my walls were not perfect, but really had no idea just how bad until I scribed it onto the stiles. See for yourself in this WIP pic:
For those interested, here's the sequence of steps that I followed for scribing:
1.) Ripped the stiles about 1/2" oversize (as you can see from the pic above, this was a good call)
2.) Cross-cut the stiles for a good friction fit between the floor and ceiling.
3.) Dry-fit the stiles against the walls, making sure the inside edges are plumb.
4.) Scribed the wall onto the stiles. I used the "washer trick". Panga panga is a very dark wood, so I used a metallic-ink pen.
5.) Jigsawed to the scribed lines. I used a fine blade (20 TPI) which wandered way off 90 so I ended up having to square the cut. I used a flush-trimming bit with a top-mounted bearing guide, using the top 1/16" of the stile's thickness as a "template".
6.) Dry-fit the stiles again, then measured the rails.
I did not bother to scribe the top and bottom rails off the ceiling and floor since any gap was going to be covered by the crown and base molding (I did scribe the crown molding off the sloped soffit and bandsawed it to fit). I routed the top molding with a 1/2"-R cove bit and the base molding with a 1/2"-R roundover bit.
The face frame is attached to the carcase with glue and 15-gauge nails.
The doors:
For the doors, I went for an inset look to match the inset drawers on the vanity. I used M&T's to join the frame members. After all the adjustments, I ended up with a 3/32" gap around the opening, a little over the 1/16" that I was shooting for. After sanding the joints flush, I routed a rabbet around the inside edges of the frame. The glass, which I ordered 1/8" undersized in length and in width, is held in the rabbet by four mitered strips of wood. The glass has a "hammered copper" texture, which LOML really likes (although I think the trade name "Hammered Glass" was a pretty bad marketing decision). It comes in 3/32" thickness.
I used Blum cup hinges to hang the door. I screwed shims on the carcase side so the carcase part of the hinge would be flush with the face frame opening.
I used the same knobs as the ones on the vanity.
The finish:
I have applied 3 coats of spar urethane and have yet to buff it out with paste wax on 0000 steel wool.
What I'd do differently if I were to do it again:
- Cut the parts so that the face frame stiles and door stiles were cut from the same board to maintain a more harmonious grain flow. Same for the rails.
- Cut the rabbets for the glass before putting the door frame together. May be a little trickier because it would call for offset tenons, but there'd be less chance for tearout.
- Decide on the hardware during the design phase and not as an afterthought!
I used roughly 8 BF of panga panga and about 2 sheets of MDF for this project. Here in Chicago, this wood is about $12/BF.
I just used good ol' Titebond II for adhesive as these were very simple joints that did not require extended open time.
I ordered the "Hammered Glass" from Torstenson, a local Chicago glass shop that has been around for 110 years.
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