DIY Under Staircase Makeover | Closet to Pantry

[Music] hey what's good guys Alex here from mr. billet and in today's video we're gonna show you how I took this under the staircase storage and turn it to that so that wasting time let me show you how I did it and let's get into the video let's go [Music] make mistakes now [Music] wanna [ __ ] [Music] perfect this is a perfect example of just having a can-do attitude having the right attitude and we could solve any problem here's a perfect example this right here is a support beam this is pertinent basically every HDTV show where they're like hey let's take down this wall open the room up that's what's happening here that's supporting the upper structure these are the stuff that are coming next to it they are running well these are I believe 16 no these are twelve footers twelve footers going up there now to solve this problem this is actually perfect practice for one day finally we need to take down a wall and put a support view this is my perfect practices have to practice doing this in a 6-foot manner as opposed to you know 12 or 16 foot matter so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna cut this down there and then and all of this is gonna be gone now since we're gonna cut it there this is exactly what's going on on top right here these are stunts that are done or stopping and sitting on top of this view I am going to pick up a fresh board this is a really by 2 by 12 and I'm gonna run it across and secure it into this stud here and then that will be our supporting piece for the top now we're gonna make sure it sits and it's anchored properly but then at that point it'll open everything up it'll be structurally sound and then we can patch everything up with drywall so solving problems that's we're in the business for solving problems for the beam are kind of recreated the existing dimensions which is a 2 by 10 studs sandwich between a 1/2 inch piece of plywood in order to accommodate the 3 and a half inches that we need in thickness and then secured what staggered 3-inch screws all the way throughout two of the biggest lessons I learned from framing the hard way through actually mistakes is number one always ask yourself is the plain straight on both the X and the y axis meaning you're not gonna have the wall leaning one way or or leaning out the other way and the second most important thing is asking yourself all the time is when I install drywall to these studs is there a possibility to attach or screw in the drywall along every edge both on the inside and the outside and I can't tell you how many times I came to install the drywall and I didn't have anywhere to screw it in because I attached it on one side but not the other [Music] couple of things I've learned the hard way over time when doing this stuff is the foundations of the stuff you're creating so keep in mind make sure before hanging drywall your studs they have to have these corner studs in place it allows for this piece to be secured and this piece to be secured I can't tell you how many times I have floaters there and again I learned my lesson second thing is when installing these little junction boxes for the outlets or the switches these are gapped depending on the thickness of drywall do you're using so there's a half-inch there's a 5/8 there's 3/8 I think I don't know I don't think there's 3/8 but a you'll you want to make sure that these little gaps are sitting on top of the studs and not behind them that way when we bring our drywall it's this nice and flush with it so little tricks that we're learning and the wire we're just using 14 to to see your classic stuff that you can run in the studs indoor applications and I'll handle all who you have power that we need for electrical I want to take this opportunity to create the environment that I wanted so I wanted to install a couple of outlets both in the cabinet and above the cabinet as well as I light that will be above illuminating the entire area and a designated light switch for it now when it comes to electrical be sure to consult your local building codes and regulations in order to keep everything safe where you are excuse me I'm recording a video is that okay he's not feeling good but he doesn't mind me working when it comes to hanging drywall you're really this the most important part is you need the special drywall screws these are the phosphate coated ones meant for the interior that way the stuff doesn't mold and get destroyed and then I'm just gonna use a screw gun to start screwing all in every I don't know ten inches or so so I'm gonna see this space closed up first sheet really good progress it's gonna be a good time so listen if you're gonna take the time to make sure you had good strong straight lined up squared framing you might as well take the opportunity to cut your drywall and create as tight joints as possible the nice thing is you can always mud and tape any imperfections you're not happy with but to really soak up the fruits of your labor create tight drywall joints they make for a proud and worthy build I promise you when taping the joints essentially you're bringing two pieces of drywall together into one solid form and to do so you're gonna take your six inch drywall taping knife and spread the drywall compound along the joints then tear off the exact length of the tape that you'll need lay it over the compound and then use that drywall knife the same one and then run it squeezing all the compound out of that tape basically you're pushing it flush onto the drywall four corners I'm using this 3m adhesive corner spray you can always use the drywall compound itself and I've done it for years but this is the first time I'm sad to give it a try and it worked exceptionally well and the way you do it is you just shoot a light coat on the drywall corners themselves and on the inside of the corners you'll be putting on and firmly press it in together it dries very quickly and gets tacky super quick so be sure to use a respirator when using the stuff because this stuff gets real smelly after the first step drywall compound dry is using 80 to 120 grit sandpaper lightly sand all the harsh edges of the joint compound without exposing or sanding the joint tape that we lay down in our first previous step now that we got our first two coats of taping done what we're going to now is the skim coat basically you're blending everything together putting a really fine layer of the mud on and then after that we'll be ready for texturing [Music] so the particular style of texture we're gonna be doing is Santa Fe and Santa Fe is one of the easiest a lot of homes have that orange peel one which is kind of nice because you just spray but in the situation the best way I've learned to do this as you take your trowel or your knife whatever you want and you put a little bit on the edge and you do a few skips and then you kind of knock you down like that it's a little bit of finesse play around with it you pull Oh too much scrape it off try it again but play around with it see what you feel it feels good on the trout [Music] oh another little tip is when you do an area like this go a little bit further out to the good drywall that way it blends everything and I've learned that the hard way after the texture was done I allowed the drywall compound to dry an extra 12 to 24 hours before painting it to apply the paint I'm using a Wagner Fleck co 5000 sprayer and I'm using a color called frosty white paint and primer from Sherman Williams now I found that in order to shoot the paint comfortably I had to dilute it with about ten percent water in order to shoot it through the spirit the way I felt comfortable now I'm sure a lot of people gonna be wondering what I think of the sprayer as an organization freak I really love how the flexi 5000 comes all packed and built into the case ready it stores the sprayer the guns the hoses the built-in blower and the power cables all inside of it and if that's an organization I don't know what is and if you're wondering about overspray like anybody would with a sprayer I was able to keep it to an absolute minimum with adequate slow regulation and obviously floor protection after spraying down three to four coats of paint while I was drying it was a perfect time to get started on the cabinet build week which typically cheap store-bought cabinets are made out of half-inch Sparkle board for the base with reinforcement pieces and disguised with cheap quarter-inch panels to give it the illusion of solid wood in order to keep costs low now I decided to make mine at a 3/4 inch thick plywood to make sure that these cabinets will outlast a house itself not to mention the heavy counter top up planning for this cabinet [Music] when we try to make [Music] wanker just [Music] I think we're due for a little recap as far as what happened here so we made our dimensions how we want them let me know what you guys something I mean these are like 34 inches tall on average they're 24 26 inches deep I mean I'm on obviously longer or deeper but here's the main idea down below here I did a three eights and a three eights together make three quarters and that is a dado cut and so basically a rabbet cut that this can sit right into it and then these are just structures to reinforce it just scrap pieces of pocket holes and this is a toe kick right here typically it's three and a half inches tall and three inches deep when the cabinets connect together we're gonna put a piece of trim there and get it all concealed so basically that's the anatomy of your typical bass cabinet and now I'm gonna start getting working on the actual face frames they are just an inch and a half thickness there Stiles and rails we're gonna do pocket holes on the inside put them together throw some pocketable is here to secure it but up being bada-boom simple stuff I don't you probably thinking not simple stuff don't it wasn't simple for me for a while to I just did this a few times so just build the cabinet and then one for it so put the face frame I went with a two inch wide select Pinewood now on the inside part I created pocket holes and added some wood glue to secure all in place after that I positioned all the pocket holes completely surround in the cabinet in the areas that nobody would see basically on the outside of the cabinet and not the inside after everything was ready I applied some wood glue and secured the face frame using pocket holes and some clamping pressure for easy application there's a lot of different ways of making cabinet doors one way is to do like a shaker style you see the table saw and you need to create quarter-inch channels basically two eighth inch which is the thickness of your blades and bada-bing bada-boom works in a problem on my shoe you guys had in this video the second way like I said the fancy way is these are specialty router bits they go into our router here one is for the styles and the rails that is the outside frame part of a door and then the other part is for the panel itself so this creates that perfect cut never done this Chile so it'll be fun to learn this together so let's throw this in our router when aligned properly the router fits create the perfect tight joints between the vertical styles of the doors and the horizontal rails and of course the center panels when assembling the doors the Stiles and rails are glued securely and the center panel just sits tightly without glue to allow for expansion and contraction wood movement as we like to call it during the hot and cold seasons so allowing for the wood movement it gives room to the panels to relieve pressure and thus keeping the doors from warping over time for the drawers they're made out of half-inch maple plywood for the sides and quarter-inch mooa plywood for the bottom which is recessed in a quarter egde groove into the drawer to get the quarter-inch groove just make two passes with a table saw which is about 1/8 inch wide a pass this is all done to keep the drawers light yet strong enough to handle what we asked of them [Music] while the doors and drawers were drying I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get some pink done on the cabinet I switched over to the finishing spray from the Wagner flexi 5000 kit and the people of the Phoenix are recommended for me to use this water-based acrylic alkyl I'd which the way they explained it to me essentially you get the toughness of an oil-based paint while having the easy to use as a water-based paint they said it thins out like well water-based paint but when it dries after you sprayed the water evaporates and the tough oil particles are stayed left on the cabinet to get that strong durability it sprayed on very well and I'm very pleased with it so far for the shelves I decided to make hollow built-in shelves typically people use MDF when doing this to keep expenses low since they will be painting the shelves anyways but since I will be staining the shelves I decided to go with a sheet of 3/4 inch maple plywood to give the shelves a solid look with that having the edges banded or the exposed plywood layers I decided to join the top bottom and front pieces together at a 45 degrees essentially I'm doing origami with these things in order to give the illusion of it being a solid wood shelf now I don't know if you knew this but I made a video of me going into greater details about building these shelves I'll link it down the description below if you guys want to pursue that build yourself and with a little more information about him all right here's a little face frame piece mitered 45 45 should hook it perfectly this space is exactly the thickness 3/4 inches right here we're gonna add a little bit of wood glue all right moment of truth yeah after securing everything with Brad nails I filled in all the Brad nail holes using wood filler stained everything using a fruit wood color stain from Minwax and finished off everything with a wipe on polyurethane to protect these shelves for years to come cabin installation went very smooth the most important part is to use wedges to level the cabinet from both the back wall and from the bottom of the cabinet and then securing it to the back wall studs through the back stretchers as well as the sides of the face frames now I recommend clamping the face frames together first level the cabinet with wedges pre drill the pilot holes in the face frame to prevent any kind of cracking or tear out in the wood and then carefully drive three and a half inch screws securing this cabinet in place I cut the side filler pieces for the cabinet painted them the same color as the cabinet scribed from the inside with a pencil to get the fitted size cut it on my table saw and secured in place using wood glue and Brad nails if you're having a hard time getting in place with some clamping pressure you can put little wedges down the sides while the glue dries [Music] alright so the countertop bill Dave today picked up a few supplies that be necessary for this job first part is we have the concrete itself some silicone and the cocking tool and the MVP the melamine I prepared the mold by degreasing with rubbing alcohol first applying a light coat of automotive acts and then applying a liberal amount of silicone into all the joints and edges and using a [ __ ] tool to spread it all out once a drive I remove the excess squeeze out silicone leaving only what's inside the center of the joints to be what bevels the edges of the concrete when it dries then it was ready to start mixing the concrete for the concrete I used about three and a half eighty pound bags of the quikrete pro fiber reinforced mix and started mixing it to a consistency of oatmeal and filled the mold one bag at a time typically when pouring concrete countertops you would lay down a metal mesh with the help to reinforce it but this product already has the fiber reinforcement so from my research I do not need it now check back in a few months and I'll tell you exactly how it's holding up but I feel pretty confident about this after the concrete cured for three days I remove the molds and flip the concrete countertop over - what now will be its top side filled any exposed air bubbles with a little bit of Portland cement once that dried I lightly wet sanded it and applied a few coats of sealer to protect the countertop from staining for the X and while I had half a sheet of MDF laying around from a previous project so I cut up a bunch of 1-inch strips on my table saw now MDF is very porous when it comes to painting so to making easier for me I first sprayed two coats of water-based primer using the finish spray attachment from the wagon areflexia 5000 and when the boards were dry I started coming up with a pattern and secured the strips to the drywall using two and a half inch Brad nails after they were hung I filled in all the nail holes using wood filler sanded everything smooth and then cocked around all the edges to give it a smooth built-in finish I sprayed the new accent wall with the same color as they did the walls in the previous step [Music] hey that is it for me this week thanks so much for watching this video it means the world to me if you like projects like this or any other home improvement projects please make sure to check out some of my other videos click the subscribe button that way you'll be alerted every time we put a video out like comment and share this video with your friends check out the merch in the description down below check me out on patreon you'll see all the behind the scenes stuff as well as price breakdowns and all the specialty products that I use remember do not be afraid to make a mess the bigger the message you create the more opportunities there is to learn from it turn out this week we'll see you as next week see ya what's the worst you can have a flood your house solving problems that's we're in the business for solving problems the group shut up all right we're just teaching people how to get started and that is it [Music]