Now that our basement renovation is complete, it’s time to furnish the space! I had a vision in my head of an arched sideboard cabinet but everything I was finding online was made of particle board and for the price, I knew it wouldn’t hold up long term! So of course, I decided to build one myself.
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I was trying to do this project with as little cost as possible and wanted to make the most of a sheet of plywood.
Before I started cutting, I drew all the cuts out on paper and modified my measurements so I would have very little waste on the sheet of plywood. Here’s the dimensions I decided on to have very little waste, the blank section I ended up using for shelves so there was no waste!
Here is my cut guide for the frame only. The basic frame of the cabinet is 64” wide, 32” tall and 15 3/4” deep. I used 3/4” plywood for the frame.
I used pocket hole screws on the 2 side pieces and the middle divider to attach to the top and bottom piece.
Once I had the basic frame assembled, I cut the back piece of the cabinet. I used 1/2” plywood for this piece. I would recommend waiting until your frame is assembled to measure and cut this piece in order to get it to fit perfect. I also used pocket hole screws to attach this.
This next step isn’t necessary and I didn’t take photos of assembly but because I was trying to not waste plywood, the 32” height wasn’t quite high enough for what I was envisioning. So to add a little extra height, I built a box under the cabinet with 2×4 lumber and attached to the bottom with screws. This added an extra 3.5 inches of height. I used base trim to cover the box. I also used door stop trim to cover the top edge of the plywood. This was also not completely necessary but I wanted to give it a little more of a finished look.
Next up was building the doors. My doors were 32” tall and I cut the width to fit the opening just right. I used 1/2 overlay soft close hinges so I made sure my door width would work for these exact hinges. I recommend getting exact measurements for your openings before cutting the doors.
Once the doors were built, I could’ve just painted and called it good but I just could not get the arch detail out of my head and was determined to figure out how to make it happen. I ran through a bunch of different option which as routering the plywood, but that would expose the layers of plywood and I didn’t want that. I also thought about putting a thin plywood overlay in an arch shape over the door fronts. But again, it would have to expose layers of plywood. Then I thought about the half dowel trim pieces I used for a project a few years ago and decided to try using these.
First I needed to get a template of a half arch so I could repeat it on all 4 doors and keep it consistent. I cut out a piece of scrap 1/4” plywood in the arch shape (I used the trash can as my “perfect” circle to get the arch 😂). Once I was happy with the arch, I traced it on each door with pencil, making sure to keep the distances equal on the left and right side of my template so each arch is centered in the door. I used half dowel trim pieces from Menards and marked each piece before cutting. I used a scrap half dowel as my spacing between each piece. Once I was happy with the arch, I used wood glue and 3/4 brad nails to attach each piece.
After all 4 doors were finished, it was time to prime, paint and install hardware. I used 1/2 overlay soft close hinges and a modern door pull.
And here’s the finished piece! 😍 It turned out just as good as I was hoping it would and it solid wood so will be around for years to come!
What do you think?? I figured cumulatively this project took me around 8-9 hours from start to finish but somehow it took 7 weeks to finished because life with kids doesn’t allow for big windows to work!
This is perfect statement piece for our basement family room and also gives us great hidden storage for games and toys! Is this something you want to try? I would love to see it if you do!
Links for everything used:
