Building the Linen Cabinet

Things have been moving very slowly since my last post. I've put up some more wallboard in the main room, but since the room is so cluttered with basement-stuff, I can't get good pictures.

This past weekend, though, was fairly productive. The biggest thing was installation of the linen cabinet carcass. The linen cabinet is built much like a regular cabinet, but is three feet wide, one foot deep, and seven feet high. So it doesn't LOOK much like a kitchen cabinet.
The cabinet consists of a plywood box mounted on a low plywood base. A face frame will be attached to the front, and doors will be mounted to the face frame. Also, a trim panel will cover the one exposed side.

Here is the space where the cabinet is going. Note that I left a space in the flooring.


The base is made of 3 1/2" wide pieces of plywood, the same dimensions as the cabinet. If I wanted a toe kick, I would simply have made the base a few inches narrower. The base is leveled with shims, and attached to the wall.



Next, the cabinet goes in. First a note on the cabinet construction. The cabinet is a very simple affair: four sides and one middle shelf, assembled with biscuits. No dado or rabbet joints. Just straight cuts. After cutting the slots with the biscuit saw (plate joiner)the joints are test fitted, then glued up, assembled, and fastened together with screws. The screws eliminate the need for lots of big clamps. Quarter-inch plywood is glued and nailed to the back. Just cover the whole back, don't cut rabbets or anything. The theme here is to keep it simple. The simpler the construction, the less chance of screwing up!!



"Aren't the black drywall screws on the side of the cabinet butt-ugly?" you might ask. "And that plywood back will show, won't it?"
Well, yes that would be ugly. But they will be hidden. In this case, the right side is covered by that short wall. The left side (facing the camera) will be covered by a decorative panel that will extend back to cover the end of the wall behind, and be trimmed along with the molding around the shower.

The face frame will come out flush with the end of the wall on the right. It will extend up to the ceiling, hiding that gap at the top, and extend down to the floor, covering the gap between the base and the flooring.

The end panel and the doors will be constructed just like the doors I will build for the laundry room cabinets. They will be frame-and-panel doors, with very simple mission-style frames.
I'll be ordering these router bits soon to make the doors and the end panel:


STOP PRESS!
I didn't end up using those fancy router bits, but here is how it came out: