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want 2 alcove built ins, cupboards and shelves. nothing too fancy the sort you'll expect to see in a 1920s place.
I have not built any furniture before but it looks reasonably straight forward. I have the tools. including a brand new router (never used one before...) I would say I'm reasonably good at picking stuff up, I've fitted bathrooms, rewired, put in fireplaces, fitted a staircase and built a shed so far...
alternatively there appear to be sites you can send dimensions too and they will send it flat pack to you. jura is one I've looked at. but they are a considerable price, £800 to £1200 each depending on all the spec
so. have you built one before? how easy for a relatively competent newbie to do? anyone experience of getting a bespoke built from an online company?
pictures if your proud of your work 🙂
If you go pre-built expect to have to do a lot of modifications because absolutely none of your angles will be the same on a 1920s build. Packers everywhere on ours.
There are some good YouTube videos on doing this. Its easy if you take your time and go about it methodically. Templates for awkward corners and expensive materials are good.
Will be tricky as a first build, but not impossible.
Measure, measure, measure! As you can guarantee nothing will be quite straight on an older house.
Also plan carefully, lots of measurements, draw out designs/ideas + keep it simple.
You could build a frame to fit the inevitably not square alcove and then get doors made to fit (making doors looks complicated). Shelves can then be fixed inside.
Our house is 1920s and has a cupboard like this on one side of the fire (in Scotland it would be described as a press). Will try to get a photo to give you an idea.
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Edit: picture added
This is the furniture makers I used to work for take on it. We named it the Angela Cupboard(As the customer was called Angela.
As with a number of the bits, we used premade units and adapted the front to sit flush with the alcove.
The harder part of it is making it look seamless to the room. Building the actual boxes is pretty straightforward and you can buy them of course.
You want a plinth for it all to sit on, level this up. Your base cabinet then sits on that, leaving around 50mm each side to scribe/trim to the walls.
Your top cab is essentially the same, though tending to be shallower.
I've done a few alcove cabinets now. Dm me if you want to know owt I can help with 👍
Cheers for the replies chaps.
I’m tempted to have a crack myself. Can’t cost to much in sheet materials, the pre builts all seem to be mdf so presume that’s the best for me to use.
Where would I look to get prebuilt cupboards and the like? I looked at potentially using a kitchen unit from IKEA as the base, £96 but the doors look a bit modern, reckon l’ll need some shaker style
Floor definitely needs levelling up, noticeable slope. Would you bother removing the carpet? It’ll be replaced at some point, I can’t imagine it would cause an issue they’d just cut and replace outside of the cupboard
Our old cupboard / press is just a frame and doors. The insides is a mishmash of shelves fitted by previous owners, a small wine rack and the electric meter and fuse boxes.
It does mean the inside is a bit rough in places but it does fine to store booze, jam jars and dry food like rice and breakfast cereal.
The lack of plinth has the advantage that the vent into the floor space for the fire to breath is hidden in the cupboard as the fire installer reckoned the gap was plenty large enough.
Edit: that 'Angela' cupboard looks really great BTW.
Have a look at Peter Millard's videos on YouTube. Then consider the following:
Using moisture resistant MDF
Buying a fair number of clamps
Buying a track saw, an MFT top and some bench dogs.
Buying a biscuit jointer, doweller or Domino....
Just done some for a friend (I created a flat pack and assembled on site) and followed up by with a cabinet at home with pocket doors and rattan panels - just upping the ante. They are pretty straightforward. Just measure everything including measuring for out of square in all axes first and have scribing allowances in all the right places. I'm pretty keen on working to dimensioned designs these days so I design first before getting any material. MRMDF definitely a good call.
Peter Millard's content is so easy to follow. The other one (who is a bit dull in video but whose content is good) is Alistair Johnson - Freebird. Specialises in alcoves.
I've got a few of these coming through so I have a Domino that makes it almost cheating. My workshop facilities are non-permanent which makes my biggest challenge setting up for accurate square cuts - it is amazing just how much tiny out of square discrepancies gang up on getting a quality finish especially with in-frame doors where you have a visible "reveal". Options are to get the sheet goods pre-cut to size (I've started using the Acton-based timber yard that Peter Millard uses AJFerguson - they're brill). Kitchen style adjustable concealed hinges are more forgiving than traditional hinges and, if MDF, they won't be screwing into the weak core of the doors. Have good squares. When you're clamping up the doors and cabinets they'll need jiggering to be square.
Most of my stuff is track saw. You need at least one long track without joins. You'll curse yourself if you're forever joining bits of track and trying to get straight cuts. Peter Millard's basic doors tutorial is genius but then I've never actually used his techniques. I've done a mix of stile and cope (fancy router cutters) in oak, Dominos in Oak and Dominos in MRMDF. For router stuff to be genuinely useful in cabinet making, a router table is the answer. Lots of vids of people using pocket holes for cabinets too. You need to be crafty to hide the holes from view in the finished piece.
Material price for a pair of good sized alcove units (cabinets below, bookcase above) has come to a bit over £300 in MRMDF. Commercial flatpacks end up more like £2k for two alcoves. That is a margin that can justify a bit of a tools budget. Doing it all yourself you've got finishing to consider too - there are a lot of surfaces to paint. I've had brill results with a £25 paint sprayer but you need the space for spraying, overspray and drying. My early tool buying frenzy has now been wife-approved as the answer to ever more challenges is "build" rather than "buy".
I make stuff like that (see my latest bedroom on the "stuff you've made" thread.
I never use plain MDF, always melamine faced chipboard. The Egger and Kronospan boards are excellent, much better to hold a screw and don't need painting.
MDF shaker doors give me the creeps. Yes Peter Millard, much as I admire your work, and we communicate often, I detest those things, and will never set up a spray booth in my workshop. I get vinyl wrap ones made to measure or chose off the shelf from B&Q etc.
I diyed some alcove cupboards a few years ago with no power tools, from what I recall it was just lots of 4 X1, plywood, 2x 2 I think
Came our really solid and nice looking I think
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great posts guys. lots for me to research. I think you've convinced me to give it a crack and invest in some new tools. let's hope black friday kicks up some deals on a domino and plunge. I'm bought into makita lxt if anyone knows of any existing deals
Dominos are a lovely system but there's very little that you can't manage without them. I'm struggling to think where I would need to use mine on an alcove build. See how Peter Millard makes his doors, or when you have the dimensions and style, ask me how much my supplier would charge to provide you with made to measure beautiful finished doors - predrilled for Blum soft close hinges.
Right I’m definitely going to give this a crack myself, track saw has arrived.
Measuring up, I have one alcove 6cm wider than the other. The widest one is next to a bay (square bay).
What do you think would look best.
1. Identically sized units with a gap in the alcove next to the window
2. Made to fit, but with doors exactly the same size so the trim is wider on bigger one
3. trim is the same size, so the doors on one alcove is 6cm bigger
I am leaning towards 3. For the fully built in options I will have to trim the window shelf down
Yeah make them with the same trim size. You'd struggle to spot 60mm difference across two doors and across a chimney breast anyway.
Pics of progress please 👍
Wondering what to do about the plugs back there, in a couple of years I’d like to get the room rewired, going to be a challenge with a built in in front of it. They are on a radial circuit for some reason. Maybe I should put in a chase in for the new cable runs before I build the unit