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I wanted to create a simple sideboard that will live in our living room, but it had to be (1) reasonably priced, (2) simple to make and (3) be built to last. I love woodworking and DIY and have been practising my skills for a while now so felt up to the challenge.
This build uses pocket holes, screws and a little glue to hold everything together. The top is made from european white oak, the frame is made from redwood, with the back, sides and door inserts made from MDF. It really doesn't matter if you are going to paint the sideboard what wood you use.
So before I get into the build, the video is on youtube showing how I built and painted it. I tried to keep the video as short as possible and included my mistakes (including the on-camera bit when i notice i've put the legs on the wrong way!)
Okay, so let's begin
First you have to take a bit of time to chop your wood to the correct size. It's vital that you use a stop block or similiar to ensure the pieces are all exactly the same length. Below you can see how I do this using one of these from amazon. First draw a measured line on the piece and line it up with the blade (use a good square for your line), clamp it so it doesn't move and then butt the clamp or whatever you're using as a stop, against it, so you can make fast repeat cuts;
Setting up stop block for use with mitre saw
Finished pile of chopped wood
Okay, now the boring part. You have to give everything a good sand. I use a random orbit sander, you can usually grab these cheap on sale. Depending on how rough your wood is, you might get away with just doing a 180 grit or 240 grit if it's already smooth. As it's going to get a couple of coats of paint and sanded in between coats, i find 180 is sufficient for a baby soft finish later.
Once done, you need to add pocket holes to each piece that needs it. In the case of this unit, the 4 legs have no pocket holes as they will be taking the screws, but everything else does. I use a Kreg K4 for my pocket holes as the extra cost over the mini allows faster working and i can attach the shop vac.
Kreg k4 pocket hole
Now this is optional, if you want to add a taper, now would be the time to do so. You can see the taper at the top of this post in the completed picture on the inside facing sides of the legs. You have choices on how to do this. I used a sliding mitre saw as you can see if you watch the video, but you could also use a router and jig as i did when i built my side tables (video here), or you can hand saw/plane them. The trick is to make sure they match...as close as you can at least. I would recommend adding a taper as it makes it look "complete" in my opinion, but there's nothing wrong with not adding one!
Next step is building the frame. I recommend doing this on a flat and level surface, one side at a time, starting with the smaller sides then the back and front.
Using a flat surface means you can clamp things down as you need too, to ensure everything stays perfectly level. This part will be nice and quick thanks to the pocket holes. In the picture below you can see I added weight at the back to keep it from rising a smidge from the front clamping pressure and slightly twisted wood.
Here im starting with the sides, note: i had the legs facing the wrong way
So now that you've got your frame assembled..
Assembled Frame
You can add the piece at the front that will act as the pillar between the doors, and also the pieces at the back that we will attach the back MDF too. We will attach the back pieces so they are shown on the inside, covered by the MDF on the back so it looks clean from the outside
Frame & Supports/Door Pillar
We also need to cut out some pieces for the bottom shelf to sit on. The bottom piece will be made out of a thicker 18mm MDF, so that its solid as a rock. Hence i'm going to add a lot of support!
Bottom Shelf Supports
Now onto the doors. I clamped the sides of the door frames and took a measurement from inside to cut the top and bottom. I know the two door openings are the same size as i spent considerable time lining up the pillar. The sides of the door are also the same thickness so i only need to measure the distance once to cut the 4 pieces i need to complete the door frame. If you use the same method as me, remember to knock a few millimeters off the as we dont want the doors completely flush. I went with 4mm so I have a 2mm gap around the door when done.
Measuring for top and bottom of doors
Now I'm going to use my simple little router table to route the dado for the mdf inserts. I spent a lot of time trying to think of creative ways to do this....and honestly this was 100% the easiest and quickest non-table saw method i came up with. Will definitely do it again too.
Cutting a dado in the door frame
Next up we are going to be cutting the door inserts (remember when measuring to include the dado leaving a tiny mm for glue too!). Seeing as i have to move things around to rip down the huge sheets, and it's so horribly messy, i also rip down the bottom, back and sides of the sideboard too!
Using circular saw and straight edge (saw track) to rip doors
Ripping the back and sides
Ripping the base
When you get to test fitting your pieces, use sandpaper where needed and if its too big, chop it down further until it's perfectly snug
Getting the perfect fit
Now you glue the sides on. I clamped mine in place then screwed some small screws in so i could remove the clamps and crack on. Same for the back piece.
Glue up the sides, clamp temporarily and screws to hold
More glue, clamps and screws for the back
Now we need to glue our top pieces of european oak together and clamp them. You will need to put clamps on the top and bottom so it doesn't bow, and if it's already a little wonky like mine, you might need to add extra clamps to clamp them straight (show below).
We also need to clamp our doors up, gluging the inside of the dado and the ends of the frame that touch for maximum grip.
Glue goes inside the dados
And on the ends
Gluing the top pieces together
Clamping everything in multiple ways to strighten it out
Now we need to notch our door hinges (how you attached the hinges depends on what you buy, i used butt hinges). There are many good videos on youtube explaining how to notch the hinges if you want to find out precisely how, and you can use a palm/trim router if you want but these ones were super thin so i did them by hand. To get the height from the top and bottom I just used a piece of scrap so all 4 hinges matched. You could measure, but i didn't see the point for this
Notching the door hinges
Test fitting hinges
Doors attached and looking fab
Okay, so now follows my least favourite part...painting. I hate painting with a passion, but it turns that above into the finished product...so it's worth doing right! Give everything a good vac to begin with.
I'm using Ronseal exterior white ash wood paint (this one precisely). To get the perfect look I ended up using 3 coats. I really should have used a base primer but neither i, nor my local B&Q had any wood primer. Which was odd. Possibly I just missed it.
Top tip, after each coat you will need to knock the paint down, well the little bits of wood that stick up. This is literally just a wipe over. Use 240 grit after the first coat as that's when it will be at its worst, then use 320 after the second and you will get a baby smooth finish after the 3rd coat (no sanding after last coat). Literally just wipe it over everywhere, use your hand to feel the difference, and give it a good vac after to remove the dust.
First coat of paint
Second coat of paint, still some knots visible
Third and final coat
At this point, I attached the doors and handles (i did not take any pictures of that part sadly) and we lifted it into its final resting place.
I then unclamped the top and sanded it nice and smooth, removing all of the excess glue i was unable to wipe up.
We then had a quick dry fit in place shown below (not the lights in the shop make it look white, where as the below is more accurate!)
Dry fit off the top (pre finish)
For the top, I decided to use Danish Oil, followed by a couple of coats of clear varnish. The Danish oil really makes oak pop and look how we all expect oak to look.
Danish oil for the top, varnish to follow
I'm using little L shaped brackets to attach the trop rather pocket holes as i don't have any hardwood screws for the pocket holes, plus this gives me more options to re-use the top on something else if we ever wanted to get rid. I only did one coat on the top of the frame if you are wondering why it looks a bit pants, it will never be seen.
L-Shaped brackets for fixing the top to the frame
Almost done, I added some little blocks of wood on the inside front of the frame to allow me to fit some nice silver door magnets which are much nicer than the white plastic ones. These will both keep the doors closed (not that they didn't already stay closed) but also prevent them from warping.
Little block with magnet attached
Magnet with door closed showing how it works
I then attached the top by drilling little pilot holes and screwing it in.
Voila, she's all done. I think it came out great and I'm very pleased with it. It should last us for years to come. If you have any questions please do let me know below, and please if you want to see me making it, check out my youtube video and my channel for more. I will be blogging more of the builds now as i can definitely see merit in this level of detail!
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