Tired of seeing your belongings (or those of your family) lying around in the living room, the bathroom or the bedrooms? In this case, cupboards and storage furniture become your best friends! To place in any place of the house, they will allow you to have an organized and tidy room on a daily basis. It is possible to find all styles and sizes in store or online; but to have a piece of furniture that is even more personalized and adapted to the decor of your home: why not make it yourself? Today we tell you (and show) everything about how make a wooden storage cabinet yourself !
So we roll up our sleeves, get our great tools and get ready to make a great piece of furniture! 🤗 Let's go, discover our tips and ideas for 100% DIY and 100% homemade manufacturing and DIY.
What furniture should I choose for my room?
Depending on the space available and the room in which you want to add more storage, the style and dimensions of your furniture may vary.
In an office or bedroom:
In an office, you can opt for column storage (to be placed in a corner or next to your desk) to optimize space, some wall shelves or a library to store your documents, books and arrange some decorative objects. 💐
For a room, dresser and closet in the wall (or a wardrobe) will allow you to organize your dressing room and place clothes, shoes and accessories at the same time. However, be sure to take the dimensions of the room before buying the furniture so that you have enough room to move around the room and around your bed.
What about the kitchen or the living room?
In your Food, if you have chosen it for both aesthetics and practicality, it should be equipped with different storage units allowing you to organize your shelving the way you want. 🍽️
However, if you are (still) short of space, you can opt for high furniture (if you don't have one installed) or for a wall shelf (or several depending on the space available on your walls) on which you can place boxes, jars, kitchen utensils or simply decoration.
Finally in the show, storage can take different forms. A wall shelf, a bookcase, a sideboard or a TV cabinet with cupboards: the possibilities are many and varied and are to be chosen (mainly) according to the space available in your living room.
For example, if your living/dining room is rather small. and already sufficiently cluttered by the sofa, the coffee table, the television and the dining table, opt instead for a tall cabinet (very practical) to place in a corner of your living room and act as a library or for wall shelves which depending on the height at which they are fixed, can give height to your room.
Conversely, if your room is big and you want to fill the empty space a little, a sideboard or a large tv cabinet with cupboards will be perfect!
Build a wooden storage unit
For dimensions, we have chosen to create a piece of furniture 150 cm long, 40 cm high and 45 cm deep. However, depending on the space available in your room and what you want to do with your furniture (chest of drawers, console, TV stand, etc.), the dimensions may vary.
To this wooden box we will also add 20 cm steel furniture legs.
Necessary material :
- 2 solid wood boards 150×45 cm varnished (thickness 3 cm)
- 8 metal brackets
- 2 solid wood boards 45×40 cm varnished (thickness 3 cm)
- 2 solid wood boards 45×40 cm varnished (thickness 1.5 cm)
- 16 screws
- 1 drill/driver
- 30 wooden dowels of 10mm diameter
- 1 ruler and a pencil
- 1 drill 8mm in diameter and 4 cm high
Step n°1: the dowels to fix the boards.
Take your boards (those of 45×40 cm) as well as a ruler and a pencil. On the two sides of 45 cm, mark landmarks every 9 centimeters. These marks will allow you to know where to place the dowels.
Once the stitches have been made, take the drill and drill then drill about 2 cm deep (half of the dowel) on the side of the board (3 or 1,5 cm thick). To help you on the depth to drill, make a mark on the drill bit. 🔩
When all the holes are drilled, insert the dowels.
Then you will need do the same on the big boards. As we have opted for a piece of furniture with three compartments and the board measures 150 cm, a 45×40 cm board will be fixed every 50 cm (2 at the ends and 2 at 50 cm from each edge). 📏
First, make two reference points 50 cm from each end of the board. These two points will allow you to draw a perpendicular line (widthwise) and will be the location of the two boards that will serve as partitions.
Then, once the two lines have been drawn, come and make reference points every 9 cm (on these two lines). It is on these marks that the second part of the dowels will be fitted.
As for the small boards, take your drill and the bit and drill 2 cm deep. 🪛
Finally, take the 4 45×40 boards and insert the “outgoing” part of the dowels into the holes. The two boards 3 cm thick will be placed at the ends furniture while those 1.5 cm thick will serve as partitions between compartments.
Step 2: consolidate the furniture with brackets.
To ensure excellent durability, stability and robustness of your furniture, reinforce the fixing of the boards 45×40 (both ends) to 150×45 cm boards with metal brackets (4 on each side, i.e. 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom).
RIPATON ideas: In addition to being very resistant and durable, wood has the advantage of being easily customizable.
Thus, you can transform your furniture with a few brushstrokes that will allow you to adapt it to the decor and style of your home. 🖌️
Another tip, personalize the doors of your furniture with caning or burlap! As trendy as it is quick to make, this trick will allow you to give real charm to your furniture.
Step 3: we give a little height to our furniture.
Last step, screw steel legs under your furniture. Here we have chosen two “Intrépide” legs. However, a wide choice of bases will allow you to create a piece of furniture according to your desires and the style of your interior.
Ripaton tips: depending on the leg chosen and the dimensions of your furniture, you may need to opt for an additional leg to be placed in the middle of the box to ensure maximum strength and durability.
And There you go ! You come from build a low storage unit can be used as a TV stand!
Do you want to personalize it with doors? We tell you everything below. 😉
Tip Ripaton: if you want even more storage space, you can separate the compartments of your furniture in two using a board (the dimensions of your box) which will serve as a shelf.
Make a cabinet with doors:
(For this DIY, we will take as furniture the one made above.)
Here you will need 3 wooden panels whose dimensions are equal inside the boxes. You will also need 6 hinges (2 per door), a screwdriver and screws.
So, you will understand, you just have to fix the hinges inside the doors and cabinet.
Once the doors are fixed, all you have to do is choose nice handles to make it easier to open your storage unit. However, you can also opt for the attachment of magnets to open and close the doors of your furniture.
RIPATON tips: if you are even more gifted with your hands, you can also make a small cut with a saber saw in your doors to create a grip directly on them.💡
Do you like the idea of a DIY storage unit?
Make one for your home! In the living room, bedroom, office (even in the bathroom): this furniture takes all shapes to adapt to all spaces. For all types of storage, this furniture will also allow you to place a few decorative objects to dress up your room and your home.
Don't wait any longer and start a DIY session to make a practical and ultra-stylish storage unit.
And if you are still looking for inspiration, find all our ideas and advice on our blog.
The Ripaton team 🚀