Making a Cabinet - what material & finish....

[Smiler.]

....so it doesn't look st?

I have no idea.

I'm thinking that 12mm ply will suffice, but how to make it look ok for use in a living room?

MDF probably a better finish natural, but MDF.

Painting: pain in the arse & my skills not good. Spray finish might be an option though.

Staining: stuff I've done previously looked all streaky & a bit naff.

Polish: I'm all ears.

I have access to power tools (unsupervised too).

[Smiler.]

Style need only be simple. Below is a sketch of the basic design.

You can almost smell the lingering in the timber section of B&Q.




I might be able to get my hands on some decent hardwood for the vertical supports.

Is there a better way to do those?



Dimns: 1150 (L) x 500 (W) x 750 (H) mm

[Smiler.]

PositronicRay said:

If I "made" anything like that it'd look pretty st, and very, very, homemade.

Well that's pissed on my chips.

Challenge accepted.

Slagathore said:

I'd also change the square/timber supports to hardwood dowels and sink them in to the shelves - https://www.toolsandtimber.co.uk/hardwood-timber-s...

Would look much nicer, and I'd put curves on all the corners to soften it up a little bit. Then roundover/chamfer etc. You;d need some forstner bits, but you can buy a set or work out what size dowel you are getting. You'd need thicker ply, though, so you can bore a hole on either side, so something like 18-22mm would work fine so you can have a comfortable amount of dowel sunken in both side without going all the way through. Or you can make 1 shelf as a guide and drill all the way through, then stack the others on top and drill all the way through, but that will make getting the heights of the shelves a lot harder.

I thought about using dowel, but I made a shelving unit previously & it was proper kack.

However, your idea of passing the dowels through the shelves has legs. I have a wizard idea of how to set the shelf heights (assuming it's not also kack).

Fixing the top shelf though, screw from the top into the centre (long thin screw, sufficient diameter on the dowel)?

PositronicRay said:

I'd scour the charity shops, recycling centres, second hand shops for something a bit less st. Adjust/convert/paint/stain maybe a bit of offcut oak worksurface to make a new top, and generally upcycle.


With the current trend for wall mounting TV's there must be plenty knocking about.

Ah, I hadn't though of that - good shout.


Cheers for all the tips.