wardrobes

[tezza111]

Hi again. A customer wants some wardrobes built in an alcove approx 850widex700deep. I have built carcass wardrobes before but as this is just a rental property they want something fairly basic and cost effective......im guessing a frame made out of softwood with a high internal shelf on battens and then just overlaying the doors with cabinet hinges. Im thinking 18-20 mm softwood for the sides so i can overlay them without a big gap to the sides.

Can anyone give me some advice on the contruction here. How to deal with possible out of squareness etc any other things to consider.. Im wondering if it would be better to have to fairly long doors overlayed and then a couple of smaller door directy above as the height is 2400 bit big perhaps for two long doors.

Any tips on this job would help me out if anyone has done them this way.

Cheers in advance

T

 

[tezza111]

Any clues greatly received....cmon now

 

[jasonB]

You will need thicker than 18-20mm for the frame otherwise you risk the doors hitting the skirting, dado & picture rails, etc something like 100x50PAR would be better. Deal with out of square walls by scribing the frame to the walls, if you look at this post by OJP you will see how I advised hime to hollow the back of teh frame to make scribing easier.

Two tall doors would be OK in a modern setting but if its an older property then two over two would look better, put a downstand on teh shelf to give it some strength

J

 

[tezza111]

Jason thanks........have read many of your posts on here so thanks for the comeback. Am humble.
There is a skirting so yes it would be better for thicker par to the sides. I was just concerned about how the painted softwood
looks (dodgyish) against the almost perfectly finished mdf so was planning to hide a much as poss with the overlay but you point is valid so will use wider wood.

Will look at the wip Jason thanks for that. Can you tell me what a downstand is please?

Cheers

T

 

[jasonB]

I'll photograph one done just like this today, its the one in my Walnut WC post.

J

 

[tezza111]

cheers jason that would be very helpful

terry

 

[jasonB]

Well you could use a hardwood like tulipwood, I've done that in the past or do what I did here and make the frame from MDF as well. Take a strip of 22mm MRMDF about 110mm wide, glue two 20mm wide strips of 18mm to the back, once dry run it through the saw to get it to 100mm wide with nice square edges and an invisible glue line.

This shows the frame scribed to the wall and the division between the top & bottom doors which forms a ....

Downstand as can be seen from the inside, position matches the transom on the adjacent doorway

You will also want a rail at the top particularly if the door needs to miss a cornice, notice how much has been shot off the frame when scribing to the wall

To get the max door size I took the architrave off one side of the adjacent door and ran the new lining as the architrave

Should be easier for you with lay-on doors, the inset ones don't allow much for fitting the lining out of square.

Jason

 

[tezza111]

Jason thanks for taking the time to help...This is very useful. Using the mdf i that way i wouldn't of thought
of... brilliant. Cheers again. Send me you invoice! (some nice work there btw)

T