DIY Furniture

Cheapskate's DIY furniture

As a world-class penny pincher, I’ve found that stock cabinets are the key to low-cost, good-quality DIY furniture. I get handsome, sturdy, real-wood furniture for the cost of assemble-it-yourself pieces sold at discount stores. And the advantages go way beyond saving money. Cabinets make furniture building incredibly quick and easy by eliminating the difficult, fussy process of building and hanging doors.

In the following pages, I’ll show you how to build three weekend furniture projects. Along the way, you’ll see different methods of covering the sides and tops of cabinets and adding legs, feet or a base. You can mix and match these various approaches to build your own furniture with the look and function you want.

Finding cabinets
Used cabinets from remodeling jobs are my first choice for furniture projects (they’re free!). I also like damaged cabinets from the local salvage store (cheap!). The trouble with these tightwad options is that the cabinets are already finished, and finishing raw wood to match the factory finish is tough. To get around this, I’ve painted the furniture or stained the new wood surrounding the cabinets a contrasting color for a two-tone look.

When neither paint nor a two-tone look is suitable, I buy unfinished stock cabinets like the ones shown in this article. Home centers usually carry one style only and one wood species only (typically oak). For the projects shown here, I used 12-in.-deep “upper” cabinets. The cabinets you find may not be exactly like mine, so you may have to alter the measurements given in my plans.

DIY TV stand

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Ebony TV stand

With technology changing so fast, it didn’t seem smart to sink a lot of money into a TV stand. But inexpensive stands didn’t have the features I wanted: enclosed storage and lots of shelves for electronic components. This stand gives me those things, plus it’s rock solid. Some inexpensive stands are rated to support 75 lbs. or less. This thing would hold a V-8 engine block. It’s sized for a 42-in. TV, but you could easily make it bigger by spacing the cabinets farther apart or choosing wider cabinets. It’s taller than most stands, which may be good or bad, depending on your situation.

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Photo 1: Extend the depth and cover the sides

“Skin” the sides with plywood after you screw extension frames to the cabinets. The frames give the TV stand extra shelf depth for electronic components and create a cavity for wires behind the cabinets. Also glue fillers into the recesses at the top and bottom of the cabinets.

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Photo 2: Build the base

Rout a decorative cove after the base is assembled. That gives you perfect corners without fussy miter cuts. To avoid splintering at the corner, clamp on a breakout block.

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Photo 3: Make the top

Edge the plywood top with solid wood and round the edges with a router. Glue scraps of plywood to the underside of the top and add cove molding.

Build up the cabinets
A TV stand based on the standard 12-in. depth of upper cabinets would have a top and shelves that are too shallow for some TV bases and electronic components. To add depth to the stand, extend the backs of the cabinets using plywood frames. I extended the cabinets by 3 in.

Assemble the extension frames using nails or screws and a little glue. Note that one side of the frame (G) is 1/4 in. narrower than the other (H). That creates a recess for the 1/4-in. plywood back (S). Next, skin the cabinet sides with 1/4-in. plywood (Photo 1). After spreading glue, I tacked the plywood in place with a couple of brad nails and then weighted it down with paint cans. Also glue the fillers (E) into the recesses at the top and bottom of the cabinets. Fillers give you a solid core to drive screws through when you screw the cabinets to the base and top—without them, screws might pop right through the flimsy 1/2-in. particleboard of the cabinets.

The base and top
The base starts with a plywood frame constructed much like the extension frames: nails or screws, plus glue. Top off the frame by gluing on 1/4-in. plywood (L). Now you’re ready to wrap the frame with solid wood facing using one of my favorite woodworking shortcuts: Instead of routing the facing, then fussing with mitered corners, glue on the facing before you rout and just form simple 90-degree butt joints at corners. Sand the corners flush and then rout the facing (Photo 2). You’ll get tight, perfect corners—fast.

I used a 1/2-in.-radius cove bit and cut to a depth of 1/2 in. That’s too deep for a single router pass, so I made three passes, removing and replacing the breakout block after each pass. To make the base top, use the same wrap-and-rout procedure. Round the top and bottom of the banding (see Figure A) with a 3/8-in. round-over bit. Again, use a breakout block to prevent splintering. Repeat this entire process to build the top of the stand, which is simply a larger version of the base top. To complete the top, add scraps of plywood and cove molding on the underside (Photo 3).

Assembly and finishing
Assemble the entire stand to make sure all the parts fit together correctly. Use screws only—no glue! This TV stand is heavy, and screws will allow quick disassembly for moving.

Screw the cabinets first to the base, driving screws from inside the cabinet boxes (see Figure A). Then set the top in place and fasten it the same way before adding the back panel (S). Measure between the cabinets and subtract 1/8 in. to determine the width of the shelves. To make the shelves, glue banding to a long piece of plywood and rout it with a round-over bit, just as you did to make the top. Then cut the plywood into sections. The shelves rest on adjustable supports. I drilled 2-in. holes into the extension frames for cables to exit behind the stand. Those holes also provide a nook to stuff excess wires into. Next, disassemble the stand for finishing. I applied two heavy coats of Minwax Ebony stain followed by two coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly. Later, with the stand assembled and in place, I drove a single screw through the top cleat (T) into a wall stud—insurance against tipping forward.

DIY Furniture: TV stand

Figure A: DIY TV Stand

The two cabinets are joined with a base and top and skinned over with 1/4-in. plywood on the sides and back.

Overall dimensions: 35-3/4” tall x 43-1/2” wide x 17” deep.

See Additional Information below for the Cutting List and Material List.

DIY Furniture Trick: Routed finger pulls

Cheap Trick: Routed Finger Pulls

A recess cut with a 1/2-in. cove bit lets you open doors with your fingertips. No hardware needed. Sometimes—like with this TV stand—that’s a sleek design choice. And sometimes, it’s a big money saver: I recently cut finger pulls in a whole set of laundry room doors and drawers. Compared with the cost of knobs (even inexpensive ones), that saved almost $100.