Recently (ie over the past year) I've worked with a good friend of mine from college (who now resides in the mtns of NC near some very, very fun roads ) to design and build a custom wine cabinet. The idea for this cabinet came from many different solutions i saw in furniture stores. What I wanted was to be able to house a case (12) bottles and all of our wine, draft, pilsner, shot, baller, and other such drinking glasses. I designed this 100% using real world bottles and glasses in Google SketchUp. My friend and his coworker then adjusted the design as necessary to allow for this to be a solid piece of furniture. We've finally got this thing home and are staining it. Below are some of the "in progress" photos, beginning with the initial sketch. The final cabinet will be a dark walnut stain and will be topped with a very nice (and very free) piece of granite counter top. Original 3d sketches: Base cabinet in its "home corner": Base cabinet test fitting granite top and doors. When this was assembled the inset panels had already been stained, but not the frame pieces. Stained doors: This gives an idea of the outer color we are using (dark walnut). The inset pieces are actually a different shade of brown, giving it a 2-tone affect. The hardware for the cabinet is going to be stainless/nickel. That's all for now...we put the first coat of stain on the outer shell today and will hopefully get that finished tomorrow as well as poly coating the doors. After this the next project will be this.... ...acrylic desk w/ IKEA legs.
Very nice! If the housing market ever picks back up enough, I will call you to help with my future home theater! While I have never made anything as nice as this, it can be super satisfying to make your own furniture.
Thanks!! I might could throw some ideas your way. We've spent a good portion of our weekend staining and poly coating the cabinet. Hope to have it ready to go by tomorrow night. The last touches will most likely include a lighting system to allow you to see into the dark corners.
my dad builds custom furniture that he sells in my moms furniture store. its always nice seeing other custom pieces. thats nice
Very nice!! I could probally find some clients for these. I am a interior designer some days so let me know what else you guys may build!!
If you guys are interested in anything PM me. I talked with my buddy Mike and he'd be open to possibly building a couple more of these, or similar cabinets.
Here's some of the final pics: Fully stained test fit: Cabinet Lighting install: Light Test: Doors On: Picked out some nice handles: Stocked and ready to go: The only thing that remains to be done is to wire in some momentary switches so the lights will cut on and off as the door opens/closes. Currently I've had a hard time finding "normally on (closed)" momentary switches that will support 3A@125VAC. Anybody have a good source?