Country China Cabinet : 4 Steps

My wife told me she had to have a china cabinet to store all of our dishes and other things. We live in the country and like country style furniture. I drew out a few designs and decided on this one. The top doors are chicken wire so you can see the dishes, the bottom doors I made out of some reclaimed shutters. The first step is to decide what size you want, I like to make big pieces of furniture. So when you enter the room it has a wow factor. The rough dimensions of the cabinet are five and half feet wide by six feet tall and two feet deep. I wish I had better pictures but I had it put together before I joined instructables, sorry if you have a question let me know.

Step 1:

The rough out of the carpentry is the next step, my wife wanted the top to have storage for dishes. Also she wanted to be able to display her drink pitchers. I started by cutting the lumber up, the sides and the top shelves are made out of 1x12's. To give the cabinet depth on the bottom I joined two pieces of the 1x12 with pocket hole screws. The bottom shelves are plywood, I wanted the shelves to be strong and warp resistant since they would be so big. After I had the main structure assembled, I began on the top of the bottom storage area. I wanted to go with a unique look, so I cut pieces of different lengths and widths. Then put them together like a puzzle. It can be seen in the first photo, just use your imagination when doing it. Next I cut out to profiles for the trim, the first one was a simple round over ( 1/2" round over router bit). I ended up making this 3/4"x3/4", the other one I made was a small size cove bit. I made it 3/4"x 1 1/4" trim. The last step is to make feet for the cabinet, I decided how long and tall I wanted the feet to be. After making a blank measuring 6" x 12" x 3/x4", I sketched out the design with a pencil. When I finished the design I cut it out on the band saw, after cutting the first one I traced it on to the other seven feet and attached them to the cabinet.

Step 2:

The last step was to make the doors and drawers for the cabinet. The top doors were fairly simple, wood frame with chicken wire. The bottom doors I used reclaimed shutters, they were a little to tall so I took them apart. Then I cut them to the size I needed and reassembled them. The drawers are what really set it off, I wanted to make them look like old wood crates. After measuring the opening I cut down some wood and assembled them. I used the old wood rail style of mounting the drawers, I like it because its easier than metal drawer slides and there are less moving parts ( Bee's Wax from the hardware store will help lubricate the slides). After finishing the carpentry I started the sanding and finishing. I stained all the wood I wanted to be brown, then after it dried I taped it off with blue masking tape and newspaper. I then started to paint everything else, it took two coats to get an even coating ( I had home depot match the old color of the shutters for the paint color). After everything dries take the tape off, lastly you apply danish oil carefully to the stained surfaces and sand with a 600 grit sand paper.

Step 3:

After adding some lighting, and attaching the doors with hinges. I moved on to the last step the custom handles. I used the lost wax casting method, you can see my instructable " Lost Wax Casting". It intels making wax handles, then making plaster molds. Lastly melting copper and taping the back of the metal to attach it to the doors. Some what advanced, you can always buy some handles at the hardware store or the internet. Just remember to use your imagination.

Fell free to make comments and ask questions

thank you