Building Media Center CABINETS

hey guys welcome to our bonus room this is where we spend time with the family watch tv and hang out today i'm going to show you how we took this blank wall that has no storage or anything useful and and turned to that seven sheets of plywood later eight cabinets and a whole lot of courage and sweat we finally got this ultimate media console so without wasting any more time let me show how i did and let's get into this video let's go [Music] let me show you the inspiration behind this media built-in that we want to do we want to do big towers here these are going to be big shelves these are also going to be drawers right there i wanted the middle part to be elevated off the ground and then we're going to have a nice big mega grand storage below there it's going to be 12 feet wide and probably another 10 feet tall so we're first going to tackle the sides [Music] folks what i have here are the basically the beginnings of two cabinets plan all your cuts ahead of time and then mass produce them the next i have to do is put pocket holes on the back of these reinforcement pieces [Music] so for this assembly method there's going to be one little trick that you have to do is create a dado cut now dado cut is basically just a channel i remembered i have a ryobi 10-inch contractor table saw and what i thought i might do is just set up a permanent dado blade in here that for cabinet making i just always mass produce them [Music] we need one more dado and they'll be ready to start assembling i could do that on my table saw because an eighth of an inch is what the thickness of a blade is so i'll just gonna move it once and then we should get our distance oh crap i basically made four sides that are all the right side the bottom dado is fine it's just this first cut i should have had two boards that are on the the other side so i can have a left and a right now i have all right all right let's put this puppy together we're gonna need appropriate pocket hole screws inch and a quarter based off of the wood that we're using we're going to use a few dashes of wood glue just to make sure this thing is indestructible [Music] this is a 45 degree angle it's mounted in the back like that right it's got a little hole this is the other side of the 45 degree angle this will be mounted on the wall like this but essentially this will just sit like that [Music] uh doing the two side towers we'll call it like the bookshelf part i'm going to cut them down in 12 inches and why am i doing them in 12 inches well because original is gonna do 14 inches and then i realized i would need three and a half sheets plus another one so then i said ah let's make it easier let's do 12 inches that way one sheet i'll get all four and i'll make it easier we'll save much money [Music] so each tower is going to have four shelves what i'm going to do is use the pocket holes as well to attach them permanently in place so my mad man approach here is to make sure i have a consistent spread here so i'm using a board that's 21 inches a little bit of glue secured in place okay so she's done now am i going to pick it up i don't know kyle do you mind helping [Music] so i want to create a beefier look on the sides and space it out about four inches on each side so i think i'm gonna rip some pieces that are seven feet tall just like this um one panel on the outside and then a couple of short pieces on the inside and create this blocking set here with pocket holes and all that jazz [Music] this is going to have enough strength in there to con connect the next cabin is going to be overhung over the tv now we have to do the ones that are uppers they're going to be the exact replica of these ones below except they're going to have a few extra dividers in there to make everything match [Music] all right one down one more to go [Music] how do i secure this from falling over um and i was gonna use l brackets but i wanted actually a more i don't know a solid approach than that so i think what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna take a scrap piece of wood that i have i'm gonna rip it into a one by two and then in the very back pretend this is the wall i'm gonna basically secure with wood and glue and screw it with wood glue just screws and glue from the bottom and then this will be an inch and a half tall so i will just secure that into the wall studs and you won't see it because there's going to be a face frame up there all right the approach to the face frames is going to be we're going to use 1x2 select pine i didn't go with the dense wood just because there's not going to be doors being slammed on these top cabinets so quick cuts brad nailed them in place with some wood glue and then to conceal everything we're just going to use some wood filler and she'll be spotless [Music] the method to my madness with these face frames is to make sure it's plumb and flush on the inside of the cabinet and then overhangs the other part ready watch this look at that that is a nice looking show man [Music] all right hey if you bring the channel and you like home improvement videos or furniture build stuff make sure you hit the subscribe button and tap the notification bell that way you'll know when these videos come out so we keep making more of the stuff that you guys hopefully enjoy for the lower carcasses i i think i will put a filler piece in here therefore i could put a nice decorative face frame or trim around it and i'll kind of put it all better together we're gonna start patching up all the wood uh that has the brad nail holes in it quick light application sanded to about 120 grit and uh what are we gonna do i think we're gonna start actually assembling some of the carcasses in place so we get better measurements and we have to do the drawers themselves they're gonna be recessed in so that means the the drawer face is going to be uh going inside lining up with the face frame itself the most important part with carpentry is the ability to not create a straight cut but the ability to repeat that cut that's why i'm using a little scrap piece that i've already measured out so i'm not having variables with a weird pencil or my tape measure all the time we are going to for the bottoms of these drawers use the quarter inch plywood i'm going to set my depth here we'll do a quarter inch on each side do two passes so we can actually fit the plywood so one finishing move we need to do before start putting these drawers together is uh and so we get extra points for the teacher round over all the edges they're just so much smoother you can later on go with sandpaper and then just do the edges so it doesn't cut anybody but if you give it a nice 3 8 round over they are smooth baby look how buttery smooth folks up next let's pocket hold the outsides of these puppies and we'll be ready to start assembling let's do it [Music] hey [Music] hey look at that we got two folks that only took three times to say i'm gonna start making some more [Music] we need to start building cabinet doors and drawer faces we are going to use the router just because i have a nice you know bit like a two-piece bit your rails on the inside they have to protrude or kind of go extra 3 8 this way and 3 8 this way so essentially this piece and this piece has to be three quarter inches longer than your overall dimension because it's going to go in in like a tongue and groove setup to prevent any kind of tear out you want to have another piece behind the piece that you're cutting [Music] you like my little uh rig here [Music] folks sometimes things just work out i'm gonna start gluing things up uh use a little bit of clams to make sure it doesn't go anywhere and of course keeping it square because nobody wants a weird drawer face [Music] folks the next day look how beautiful everything came out quicksand hit them with 120 i don't think i'm gonna go up to 220 because we're gonna paint and prime and the whole shebang all right so we're gonna be installing the drawer slides here they are like i said they're half inch gap on each side but guess what we have we have a face frame therefore we cannot attach it and have the door the drawers open up because of the face i've just cut up some scrap pieces to mount to the side here and then the drawer slides will come here and we'll be able to still use both the face frame and have our drawers come out adequately [Music] oh that is smooth baby let's go all right let's install the drawer faces you just set your drawer face in the front and then use the deck of cards decide how many cards you want to put along the sides and the bottom and the tops equal amount of cards means a perfect gap i can't find my cards my kids stole them all i don't know what we're doing so we're gonna improvise i'm gonna use cardboard the reason it's gonna work for me right now is i've done my due diligence and i planned ahead all the gaps they're supposed to be an eighth of an inch roughly so this is close enough we'll set it at the bottom sides to sides place the drawer face there clamp it in place make sure it doesn't move come out and then secure the screws from the bottom for the doors they're gonna be recessed right we're gonna put a three-quarter inch piece in here which is the distance from this back wall to this face frame just where the hinges are going to line up therefore we're almost going to bend the rules a little bit we use a little jig to create the hole in the doors put them all in line them up and they should be working no problem all right so one of the issues that i'm seeing right now it's a huge issue not to this bit cutting bit would be overlapping by what looks like to be like an eighth of an inch i should have when i built these doors gone a little bit wider instead of maybe a one by two maybe do a one by three one by four now we are where we are i have four doors i think what i'm gonna do is add rip a piece of pine add a quarter inch strip on this side where the hinge will be i'll glue it so i'll be super strong then use the jig make my holes and then on the opposing side i would rip a quarter inch off because my gaps have to be a certain amount to make sure the doors work let this be a lesson folks don't use 1x2 for styles and rails at least some cabinet doors bump them up to like the next up three and a half or one by four or something like that ah i'll just glue the pieces that i cut off back on and we'll see how it turns out if it turns out like crap i'll have to rebuild these doors so it actually worked out pretty well though it was frustrating and as you can see the glue up went perfectly seamless we're ready to paint everything sanded and dusted off so i'm going to start masking things off so i'm going to mask this off so i can stain not painting the inside of the cabinets i actually really like when the cabinets are more of a natural color all right let's shoot some primer on our project i'm using a general kilt all-purpose interior primer you want to use primer on raw wood prevents it from chipping and not to mention if you don't use primer the amount of paint that you're going to have to use while before it soaks it all in before it stops is obnoxious as far as the sprayer we're going with the wagoner flexio 3500 it's primarily best for fine finishes small projects medium-sized exterior so this is exactly what we're looking for this is where the money's at it's a small pattern perfect for baseboards perfect for furniture minimal amount of overspray hey folks this is advanced from benjamin moore i use this on the trim and the doors in my house it's been like what seven months and it held up perfectly the color is vintage vogue it's the same color that's in the room the bonus or the green really cool irina likes it that means i have to like it as well i'm kidding i like it a lot once you've sanded all your boards down to 220 fantastic then you put primer up great but the thing is all the little fibers on the wood starts rising when they get wet so this is a little coarse we're going to knock it down with about 220 grit really quick nothing crazy with a sander and then we'll put paint on it and that will create a nice clean soft silky smooth finish [Music] so irina mentioned she wants to stain all the wood shelves like a walnut color i'll do a little quick test i'll go show it to her i don't know she's going to like it or not this is walnut and that's exactly how that's going to look i was wanting dark i think it's great you want even darker than that no so you want this i wanted like the walnut no no no no no do you like that where's the green i want to put it against the green no i like it we're done a hundred percent yeah i think it's going okay it's going for a moody look oh okay i like that better not get any of that can i sand it i never sanded the cabinets you know what happened because you're dying inside a little bit i like it you went from liking it to not liking it to now liking it again yeah i'm the most decisive person you'll ever meet i do like this way more than that but i don't like the fact that we're painting the cabinets the same color as a room in fact let us know in the description well so this is my that my thinking behind it if you do it like a different color so you wanted to do it like a color of our cabinets basically right yeah if you do that it's going to look like it's not part of the wall and my our whole thing was like it want we wanted to let us know in description do you will you like it when you see the final reveal of the exact color as the walls or do you think it would look better if it was a different color i like having the same color of the walls and then doing the floating shells a different color because it adds a little bit of a contrast we'll see what the masses say i don't know i feel like you have a pretty dedicated following that is going to stand behind you i know mr building militia that's what we're doing with mr building militia their ride or dies man [Music] it's install time we're going to remove the baseboard because the side cabinets go flush against it these vents i'm going to relocate them so in the meantime i'm going to pop these off find all the studs because that's the most important part everything's going to mount to the studs studs and then i'll hang the french cleat system starting with the middle drawers and then work our way up so for the top i decided to make it a little bit simple i used uh the same plywood maple three-quarter inch but we're gonna beef it up right so i'm gonna put this on top and then put the one by two at the bottom obviously stained i'm going to put these brackets on the very tippy top and secure them with glue and screws from the bottom and then i'm going to screw this part into the wall studs to keep them from going forward [Music] all right the installations are done surprisingly smooth i'm going to save you guys the hassle because i've already installed the drawer faces once i'm putting it all back together i will do one more thing before showing you guys the big reveal i'm probably going to sand the just the faces of those on top and stain these so it looks like it continues all around but without any more further ado let me show you guys this big reveal [Music] so let's talk about the overall price breakdown of this project for the plywood it was six hundred dollars for the one by two trim which we used a lot it was two hundred dollars paint was pretty pricey was fifty six dollars as well but it was a quality paint and of course the hardware was two hundred forty dollars all in all making this giant project with a lump sum total of 1096 dollars hey thanks so much for sticking around watching yet another one of my videos it means the world to me if you have an input on this project maybe a suggestion i should have done differently i'd love to hear in the comments section below connect with me all my social media links will be in the description as well as the merch section we have all the curt and sweat merch all help support this channel including my patreon where we have extended versions of these videos that are like an hour long where we don't cut out anything a lot of important stuff is in there i hope you guys find it useful thanks so much for wagner for partnering on this project with us i'm a huge fan of the flexio 3500 the link for that tool will be the description below as well remember guys we are not trained professionals we're just not afraid to try and fail curtin sweat that's our motto and of course if you're brand on the channel and you like videos like this make sure to hit the subscribe button and important tap that notification bell that will be alerted every time a video comes out tune out this week we'll see you guys on the next one see ya bye [Music] you