Chris Knight
Established Member
Have checked it was OK to go public 
I thought I might as well make a thread I can update as my design develops. Might even get a comment or two to help stop me going too far wrong!
Our kitchen has cupboards that have too much stuff in them. My solution would be to throw some of the stuff away but I am reliably informed that is not an option. The conservatory has a door to the kitchen and has a wrought iron shelf unit thing not far from the kitchen. It collects dust and anything left on it is obvious so the plan is to replace it with a sideboard that can take kitchen overflow and have the few bits on it from the shelves.
Heat and its effects is a concern but our friends nearby have various wooden furniture items in their conservatory and seem to be getting away with it.
In order to decide on the size I lashed a few offcuts of ply together to make a big ugly box at the size that looked about right and stood it in place. It survived for 2 weeks before I got so much grief it had to go. We could live with the size so that was decided - 450mm deep 1400 long with height as the kitchen units.
My previous and only project so far was a set of 3 small tables in Oak. The colour became an issue and I spent quite a while recoating them to get an acceptable match to other items. This time nothing needs matching so I bought a few planks of various light woods and beech was the choice.
I've bought some timber and have left it in the conservatory. After being pointed towards Silvermans I have bought a sheet of 6mm MDF with beech veneer also as I needed to know the thickness to design for exactly.
I scoured the net for sideboards and saved pictures of ones that didn't look too bad. I printed them then deleted them so best I can do is a photo of the prints..
I liked the doors and proud crossbar in this one
But not too sure about the drawer faces. I'm thinking about breaking them with a vertical to follow up from the doors.
I've spent an unreasonable amount of time with sketchup and don't have that much to show for it - but what there is, is working detail.
There are rebates in the side and back components to inset panels - in the same way I intend to construct the doors.
We don't want it open underneath so there will be a plinth and I'm also considering making a drawer of the plinth front.
Still lots to think about but it is making progress. Panels will be last so I don't have to keep hiding them as i draw. Doors and drawers next i think.
I do like smooth drawers so (at the risk of spoiling it) they will be on some kind of runner.
==================
Well I think I've about finished the drawing stage.
There are a couple of small things to resolve like the bottom drawer latching/sprung/no catch but that will be easier to decide when the thing is in front of me. I have drawn in pads to take the concealed (kitchen) hinges but not sure if I like them - so that may change.
I will be doing more to the drawing but only dimensioning the components as all the detail should be there now. Drawer face assemblies and the top will have biscuit joints which are not shown and the top fixing method is also not shown but will either be pocket screws or some kind of toggle blocks into rebates.
I've learnt a lot about using sketchup developing this and it is obviously the ideal tool for the job. Knowing AutoCad before hand was a distinct disadvantage as the working methods are so different. To anyone else struggling with sketchup I'd say persevere and ask questions - it does get easier!
The actual (450k) sketchup file is here for download if anyone would like to pull it to pieces
Can't leave this without one last thanks to DaveR for his sketchup help. Dave even made contact and looked at an earlier version of the file to tell me how I was doing!
I thought I might as well make a thread I can update as my design develops. Might even get a comment or two to help stop me going too far wrong!Our kitchen has cupboards that have too much stuff in them. My solution would be to throw some of the stuff away but I am reliably informed that is not an option. The conservatory has a door to the kitchen and has a wrought iron shelf unit thing not far from the kitchen. It collects dust and anything left on it is obvious so the plan is to replace it with a sideboard that can take kitchen overflow and have the few bits on it from the shelves.
Heat and its effects is a concern but our friends nearby have various wooden furniture items in their conservatory and seem to be getting away with it.
In order to decide on the size I lashed a few offcuts of ply together to make a big ugly box at the size that looked about right and stood it in place. It survived for 2 weeks before I got so much grief it had to go. We could live with the size so that was decided - 450mm deep 1400 long with height as the kitchen units.
My previous and only project so far was a set of 3 small tables in Oak. The colour became an issue and I spent quite a while recoating them to get an acceptable match to other items. This time nothing needs matching so I bought a few planks of various light woods and beech was the choice.
I've bought some timber and have left it in the conservatory. After being pointed towards Silvermans I have bought a sheet of 6mm MDF with beech veneer also as I needed to know the thickness to design for exactly.
I scoured the net for sideboards and saved pictures of ones that didn't look too bad. I printed them then deleted them so best I can do is a photo of the prints..
I liked the doors and proud crossbar in this one
But not too sure about the drawer faces. I'm thinking about breaking them with a vertical to follow up from the doors.
I've spent an unreasonable amount of time with sketchup and don't have that much to show for it - but what there is, is working detail.
There are rebates in the side and back components to inset panels - in the same way I intend to construct the doors.
We don't want it open underneath so there will be a plinth and I'm also considering making a drawer of the plinth front.
Still lots to think about but it is making progress. Panels will be last so I don't have to keep hiding them as i draw. Doors and drawers next i think.
I do like smooth drawers so (at the risk of spoiling it) they will be on some kind of runner.
==================
Well I think I've about finished the drawing stage.
There are a couple of small things to resolve like the bottom drawer latching/sprung/no catch but that will be easier to decide when the thing is in front of me. I have drawn in pads to take the concealed (kitchen) hinges but not sure if I like them - so that may change.
I will be doing more to the drawing but only dimensioning the components as all the detail should be there now. Drawer face assemblies and the top will have biscuit joints which are not shown and the top fixing method is also not shown but will either be pocket screws or some kind of toggle blocks into rebates.
I've learnt a lot about using sketchup developing this and it is obviously the ideal tool for the job. Knowing AutoCad before hand was a distinct disadvantage as the working methods are so different. To anyone else struggling with sketchup I'd say persevere and ask questions - it does get easier!
The actual (450k) sketchup file is here for download if anyone would like to pull it to pieces
Can't leave this without one last thanks to DaveR for his sketchup help. Dave even made contact and looked at an earlier version of the file to tell me how I was doing!
