Monster New Bedroom Build - Finished - At Last

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Vinny

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19 Sep 2008
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Location
Wilts
Thought it was about time that I posted something that I've been working on for a while, a new bedroom unit for my eldest daughter. At the mo her room is well and truly "ikea'd" :oops: it's a not a big room by any means and the addition of the swedish menace really cuts down on space, so a glib comment to swmbo along the lines of " I could knock something up that'll be better" was immediately seized upon by the skirt wearers in the house and I now find myself with no room in the shop while I build (or knock up) the promised improvement.
I thought about doing a WIP from the outset but it slipped my mind, initial planning was done on sketchup so that I had and idea of what would fit in, the design changed significantly as the job progressed. So heres a look at whats been accomplished thus far.

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Mattress goes on top.

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Everything bar the drawer boxes is MR MDF, biscuited, glued (TB III) and pocket holed. the drawer boxes are normal MDF with all the finger joints cut using Steve M's excellent router jig.

First attempt at using a panel raising cutter on the drawer and cupboard fronts, think it went OK but wow, how much dust. Slight flaw in the design meant that if the drawer fronts had knobs then the bottom drawer in the wardrobe unit would foul on the knobs when opened. Flush fitting openers required. Shocked at the prices from the main ironmongery sites but kept my eye open and eventually found some on ebay for 1.37 ea, far better than the lowest price of @£5 that I found elsewhere.

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The two top drawers open to become a desk area and the hinged lids open to provide laptop and stationary storage.

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The plan for finishing is to use this (present to myself for Christmas) and morrels mdf primer and finish coat.

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Questions (probably for Brad but everyone please feel free to jump in):

How well does the morrels paint "fill" slight imperfections on the joints ? there aren't many and those that exist are in awkward places that would prove tricky to sand if I were to use filler.

For a project such as this should I be looking at pre-cat or acid cat. I believe pre-cat takes longer to dry. The morrels man in the Bristol shop said that all the customers that he's dealt with that changed from pre-cat to acid cat have not looked back.
I'm not a novice sprayer but this will be the first time using a HVLP system and the first time spraying anything other than a motorbike!
I plan to spray the primer in situ in the workshop, move and install the main units (it breaks down into 3 seperate units) in the room, mask everything up and spray the finish once its all in place. The drawers and doors will be primed and finished in the workshop.

Next step is the wardrobe and overhead unit doors, I'll let you see how they go...........maybe

Cheers for looking

Vinny
 
Looks really good, particularly like the "hidden desk"

I really wouldn't want to use acid cat in the house, however well masked and sealed the room is it smells bad! Also spraying constructed with awkward corners you may need a couple of coats with rubbing down between, all best done in the shop I would have thought.
 
Better not let my Daughter see this thread, as she's been nagging me for a while for new bedroom units. If I'm reading it correctly, the mattress will sit on top of the drawers unit. If so, are you planning on fitting a rail to the top, to aid climbing up/down and prevent falls ?

Looks really good - keep us updated.
 
You're getting very good at this now, Vinny! ;-)

Really like the hidden desk top though, I might have tried to make it so that it slides away instead of folding up - not that it would make the build any easier, of course!! :)
 
Mick

LOL, the missus has already hinted that the garage is obviously big enough to now become a 4th bedroom !!

The fish were also very much alive at the time of the photo, sadly the big girl (39lb 9oz) died a couple of years ago during spawning.

Dean

No plans for rails at the mo. Daughter is 15 and when it was suggested she said that she hadn't fallen out of bed for many years and didn't plan to start any time soon.

Olly

Sliding desk tops....Mmmmmmm, youngest daughter also needs something doing to her room, your idea may feature.

Vinny
 
Managed to get some more mdf mangling completed, next step is to clean the shop from top to bottom, cover everything in plastic sheets and then break out the sprayer - something that I'm looking forward to and dreading at the same time.

I think I made a mistake with the doors, cut the rebate for the panels from the face of the door which meant that I had to fill the profile on the corners with filler and then sand. If i'd have cut it from the back there wouldn't have been any need to break out the filler. Lesson learned for next time. This was my first shot at making a door from scratch and I think they've turned out OK (in spite of the filled internal corners).

The hinges came from Ikea, just over a fiver for 4. Pleasantly surprised to find that along with the normal Ikea stamp on the hinge body there was also the manufacturers stamp........Blum !

Cheers for looking

Vinny

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At last its done.........dismantled.........sprayed.......moveds upstairs...........installed.........fettled.........fettled again...........doors hung..........knobs done.......fettled again.........kettle on.....feet up for the first time in 2 months..........Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :lol:

Spraying seemed to take ages due to the fact that limited space meant that I had to spray in batches, carcassing then drawers then doors. I'm very good at cleaning spray guns now and have it down to about 5 minutes for a complete strip down, clean and reassemble.

I used Morrells paint (primer and pre-cat), the guy at my local branch could not have been more helpful.

Overall I'm impressed with the finish seeing ast his was my first foray into HVLP spraying. I thinned the mix a bit too much for the doors and didn't have any more laquer to thicken it up so the "lustre" on the doors differs slightly to that on the drawer fronts. I'll probably give the doors a light rub down and spray another coat when the next project that gets to the paint stage.

I'll do a review of the HVLP system in the near future.

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Vinny
 
From a distance that finish looks great, what's it like up close? Looks like a very smart job all assembled, not sure sure about the bedding...

How much is that Morrells stuff? I've been using ordinary water based primer and eggshell so far but as I'm enjoying spraying so much I might be sersuaded to try specific paints

Aidan
 
Aidan

Up close the finish is just what I was after, not a high gloss and not matt either, don't really know how else to describe it. The Morrels paint was about £24 for a 5 litre can (this was after a trade discount given to me by the bloke in the Morrells shop without me asking for it - big thumbs up there). Pretty much the same price for the primer and the laquer. As this project was all white he gave me the laquer they use as the base for their range of pigmented paint as it wotked out a bit cheaper. I went for a precat 30% sheen (they can supply 10-100%).

After some discussion I opted for the pre-cat, mainly because this was my first time spraying with anything else other than a rattle can and was of the mind that trying to get the mix correct on acid cat (2 pac) was just something else that could potentially go wrong. All the Morrels paint is test sprayed during development to achieve the correct atomization (is that a word ?)using a 1.8mm needle and nozzle. My HVLP system has a 1.3mm set up so some thinning was required, no major dramas thinning it to the correct viscosity using the provided viscosity cup (20 seconds for the primer and 18 seconds for the laquer) - and it made the paint go further.

Main issue I found was having to clean the gun with very potent cellulose thinners between coats - the primer dries very quickly, its ready for a de-nib in about 10 minutes. So there wasn't the option of leaving the paint in the gun ready for the next coat. The laquer is also quite quick, not so much as the primer but still not enough time to leave paint in the gun. I imagine that spraying a water based paint doesn't present such issues.

The smell is also an issue, I was going to assemble and then spray in situ but after advice from Matt S earlier in the thread I opted to do it in the shop, glad I did as even with the door taped and tarps hung round everywhere the smell of cellulose was evident in the house.

Vinny
 
Hi Vinny
Nice job, that looks like a lot of work.
I feel bad about bringing this up at this stage of the game, but...

You have the mattress on a solid surface. It really needs to be ventilated. People sweat at night. OK a young lady probably glows, or something, but the fact is that we sweat and that moisture has to go somewhere. If it can't, it's a haven for mould. I made my first bed using a sheet of ply, so I found out the hard way. Mattress manufacturers will have a spec sheet about how much support and ventilation their product requires.

It's probably not too late to do something about it. You could drill a grid of holes in the top, although that then begs the question about what is beyond that.

It would be a shame to see all that hard work spoiled by a bit of mildew.
S
 
Steve

Beat you to it, the top is drilled with alternating 25mm - 75mm holes, its also been given a brush coat of an underseal type product (got it from a sports centre manager mate of mine - they use it in saunas) so hopefully no mildew problems will arise.

the alternative was to paint my daughter with ruberoid mastic......but she wasn't overly keen on the idea.

Vinny
 

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