Make your own media cabinet!
So I already posted this on Craftster, but I’ll post it again here.
I should really be studying for my exams right now, but since it is such a nice day out I thought it would be nice to share a fun summer (or spring) project.
I started this project last summer and while it is still not completely finished, it’s done enough to be able to share. Also, don’t be discouraged by how long it’s taken me! Those of you who aren’t big procrastinators can do this in a weekend.
This is the final product. Cute right? It was once an old dresser that my boyfriends mother was throwing out. By the time I got to it, it was already out on the street for the garbage man, and someone had taken the drawers.
I was so excited to start that I completely forgot to take a before picture. But as you can see it was originally dark brown, and you can see where the drawers would have gone.
I started off by ripping off the back panel. You could probably leave this on, but since I was going to be putting a full sized computer tower into it, as well as a lot of other electronics, I thought it would be easier to run the cords if it was backless, and it also allows for better airflow, so my computer wont overheat.
The next thing I did was measure for the doors. The easiest door method would be just using a solid piece of wood for each door and having exterior hinges. Unfortunately for me I had my heart set on doors with a rattan woven panel (partially to allow for more airflow, and partially because it looks pretty). I also had a very narrow frame to work with, so I had to subtract a little from the width of my doors to allow for the hinges to be attached on the inside of the frame.
If you’re going to make your doors you’re going to need a saw. Now saws are scary and tricky so I’d either recommend finding someone with experience to help you, or going to your local hardware store and getting them to cut the wood for you. I started off with the saw but after a few too many mistakes decided it was much fast to just go to the store and have them cut it. I had ruined most of my wood anyways 
. Also, a lot of stores will do free cuts if you are buying your wood from them.
*btw, I used 1/2 inch MDF board for my doors, which is relatively inexpensive and easier to work with.
If you are going to make a frame for your doors instead of using a solid piece of wood, the best way to attach the pieces together is with small pieces of dowel. You can either buy one long strip and cut it into 1.5 inch pieces (cheaper) or just buy the pieces pre-cut (easier). You’ll also need a whole lot of wood glue.
Start by taking all the vertical pieces and drilling a hole the size of your dowel about 1.5 inches away from each edge of the strip of wood. If you look carefully at the picture you can see two small holes at each end. The holes should be about half as deep as the length of your dowel. Only drill the holes on the INTERIOR edge of the wood strip. It is best to lay out all your doors first to make sure the nicest looking wood faces outwards and to label to backs of your strips so you know what goes where. After you’ve drilled all your holes, stick the pieces of dowel in the holes (don’t worry about gluing them just yet)
Drilling the second set of holes in the horizontal pieces is by far the hardest part of this project because it is so important that the holes match. (If they don’t match up, your doors won’t be a perfect rectangle). After trying several different methods, I ended up just holding a vertical piece against a horizontal piece and tracing the dowel. Then I was able to continue the lines to the edge and drill the hole in the middle or the square that’s made. The most important thing to remember here is to make sure you that you use the actual vertical piece you will be connecting to that specific horizontal piece. (Remember how you laid all the pieces out before hand and labeled them…this is why)
Once that is all taken care of, and you’ve drilled your holes, it’s on to the fun stuff!
Put a little bit of wood glue into each of the holes you drilled and a little on the edges of the horizontal pieces, insert the dowel into the hole and connect your horizontal piece to your vertical one. Now, insert into clamps. I have very little experience with clamps and my dad helped me a lot with this part, but if you don’t have clamps I bet you could surround each door with a bunch of heavy textbooks to hold it in place before the glue dries. It is important to do the gluing quickly, one door at a time so that you have time to play with it a little before it starts to dry. Also, make sure you wipe off all the excess glue right away because it will NOT peel off after it dries… you’ll have to sand it off, which is a huge pain!
DECORATING YOUR DOORS!
I looked everywhere for sheets of woven rattan that I could attach to the inside of my door, but I couldn’t find it anywhere locally. I was just about to give in and order it online when I remembered that I had several large spools of flat gimp/plastic lace. So I got out my staple gun and started weaving. (As you can see in the picture I managed to get my boyfriend to help) After a while we both got sick of stapling so we switched to duct taping…which worked surprisingly well. Just cut small pieces of duct tape, stretch out your gimp and lay the duct tape over. And when you’re done a section, leave a heavy book on the duct taped areas overnight.
This is what the woven doors look like all painted up.
I got a little lazy with the weaving so I decided to just fill the holes in the other doors with cardboard. It probably would have been better to use wood but I didn’t want to have to saw again….
So I traced the cardboard (it’s the thick, corrugated kind) and cut it about an inch bigger than the hole. Then I just glued it in place and painted it. You really can’t tell it’s cardboard unless you look really close.
Then it was just a matter of giving everything another coat of paint, attaching the handles, and hinges and assembling it in my new apartment!
Over all this was a pretty easy project. I did almost lose a finger to the saw, and my doors don’t quite line up as well as they should have, but it is defiantly the coolest and most useful thing I have ever made.
And it was cheap!
The spray paint (blue, silver and topcoat) cost about $25+
The handles were used and cost $2 for 4
The extra wood was $15
The hinges, dowel, gimp and everything else I had in my stash.
The only thing that is missing is shelves…which can easily be added if you start with a dresser because you just lay a piece of wood over the wood that the drawers originally sat on.
I realize this isn’t the best tutorial so if you have any questions just ask me and if you want to see more pictures just let me know!
C&C welcome!
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