DIY L-shaped cabinet. Step-by-step instructions on how to assemble a corner cabinet

Making a cabinet with your own hands is easier than a table or chair, but somewhat more difficult than a stool or bedside table. If you fully understand how these pieces of furniture are made, then you can take on the cabinet. There are 3 possible options for organizing work:

A simple, unpretentious wardrobe in utility rooms. It is preferable for beginners to start with it: there will be benefits, the flaws will not be visible, and the acquired skills will be useful in the future;
A cabinet cabinet “like everyone else’s” for living rooms, but with significantly, 2-2.5 times, lower costs Money. At the cost of your own labor and skill, of course;
At costs comparable or even lower than for a regular store-bought cabinet, it is possible to make a very high-quality and durable cabinet, which are sold as extra or luxury.

Sliding wardrobes are especially popular now: they allow you to save a lot of living space, and the fittings and door sliding mechanisms for them are affordable. Making a sliding wardrobe with your own hands is more difficult than a hinged one, but it is still possible for a novice furniture maker. And, as will be discussed later, there is an opportunity to save a lot on fairly expensive door profiles.

The built-in wardrobe provides even greater savings in material, see fig. But it’s definitely worth taking on it only if the apartment has a ready-made niche or a solid floor has been laid using a leveler. Otherwise, work on leveling the floor will eat up all the savings. The ceiling may also have to be trimmed, but not as accurately and this work is easier.

In any home there is also a restless corner in which only garbage collects. It will be usefully filled corner cupboard. Structurally, it is more complex than usual, and saving money when making it yourself will be less. But this will pay off in convenience, especially in small apartments: standard “corners” in them do not add much to ergonomics, and a non-standard custom one will be expensive.

However, the main purpose of this article is not to snatch here and nibble there. There are plenty of manuals on the manufacture and self-assembly of cabinets in RuNet. Right down to instructions like: “Take the drill with your hand...”. If not with teeth, then it would be necessary to clarify: which one - right or left? Because a person’s hands are functionally different. However, the existing publications are written quite conscientiously - each about a separate specific product. There are also very reviews general plan. But something like a summary of how to design and make a cabinet according to your own conditions and needs is not visible. But a closet is not a table or a chair; it requires a lot of space and stays on it for a long time or forever. And besides, it is an aesthetically defining piece of furniture.

In this publication We will work on how to design and assemble a closet yourself specifically for your home; It is this approach that will provide the greatest savings in both money and labor. Where the closet should be, how much space there is and what will be in it, you decide for yourself; precise recommendations from outside are impossible. The rest, so to speak, of home cabinet building is carried out step by step as follows:

Determining cabinet dimensions;
Choosing the type of design based on your needs and available capabilities;
Choice of door type – hinged, sliding (wardrobe) or folding;
Selection of material and suitable assembly technology for it;
Selection of filling installation methods (shelves, drawers, hanger bars);
Cabinet design;
Preparing space for the cabinet, if it is built-in;
Preparation of body parts;
Housing assembly;
Manufacturing and hanging doors;
Manufacturing (purchase) of filling modules;
Filling the cabinet.

Dimensions and layout

The general diagram of a conventional cabinet cabinet is shown in Fig. on right. Some of the modules, based on the available floor area and ceiling height, may not exist, or it will be, say, not 2, but single-leaf. However, the dimensions of the cabinet within certain limits and the principles of its layout must be followed:

Transverse depth (width) – 450-650 mm. Less - the product will be unstable; more – inconvenient.
The height of the wardrobe (dress compartment, right wardrobe in the figure) is 1550-1850 mm.
Chest height – 700-750 mm.
The width of drawers and shelves is 400-450 mm.
The depth of the drawers is 250-300 mm.
The distance between the shelves is 300-350 mm.
Vertical layout: drawers below, shelves above them, and niches above all.

The dimensions of drawers and shelves should be kept within the specified limits. With smaller ones, the capacity of the cabinet drops sharply with the same overall dimensions, which complicates it and increases its cost. With large drawers, it is difficult to operate and keep them in order.

Do you need mezzanines?

Mezzanines add a lot to the labor intensity and cost of the cabinet. But to assemble a cabinet without mezzanines, you need at least 7 cm between its roof and the ceiling, if you use special tools, and from 12 cm with ordinary tools. Mezzanines can be assembled at the bottom and pushed up, for which there will be enough space under the ceiling of 2-3 cm, otherwise and 10-12 mm. Now let’s estimate: a small cabinet, 1.6x0.6 m in plan. Let's take 7 cm to the ceiling, this will come out to just over 67 cubic meters. dm. That is, the capacity of a pair bedside tables or children's playhouse, or shoe cabinets, which are also needed in the house. In general, it’s better not to be lazy and make a closet with mezzanines.

Design

The general layout of the cabinet allows for many options for technical implementation; just look at trade catalogues. In living rooms, as you know, wall cabinets are most often installed, pos. 1 in Fig. A classic wardrobe with a mirror, pos. 2. In the nursery, office or bachelor’s one-room apartment - a pencil case, pos. 3. If the apartment has a shallow niche, there is a good place for a built-in wardrobe, pos. 4. It is especially useful for household items in places common use, pos. 5: there is always a technical area there, and the riser is changed, or at least inspection hatch it is not opened every year or even every decade.

About walk-through cabinets

About corner cabinets, pos. 6 and 7, we will talk in more detail below, but for now we will dwell on the walk-through cabinets, pos. 8. Actually, a real walk-through wardrobe is something like a walk-through dressing room: doors in front and back, and the contents are placed on the sides of the passage. Once upon a time, these were made in hallways to save space, but with the advent of reliable and affordable sliding doors A wall closet with a mezzanine above the door began to be considered a walk-through.

A walk-through cabinet will not only be appropriate in a long narrow room. It can be a key element in the overall layout of the home. Let's say you are sketching a sketch of a future new building. And remember that not only construction costs, but also property taxes and utility bills in the future depend on the size of the house in the plan. Accordingly, you plan rooms for purely personal use - a kitchen, a bedroom, an office - according to the residual principle, as a result of which they emerge as tunnels of extremely small width for living rooms. This is where a walk-through wardrobe will help out: it will give the room(s) the necessary coziness, and it may also be possible to enclose a dressing room, closet or small workshop; A cabinet deeper than 65 cm is not needed.

About corner cabinets

Wardrobe, close-fitting outside corner, pos. 1 in the figure is no different: these are 2 wall cabinets with a stand at the corner. The rack is designed and subsequently assembled last. It is not structurally connected to the side wing sections, nor are the wings connected to each other.

With cabinets in inner corner it's different. If they are not single, then the corner section is designed and then assembled first, and then the wings are adjusted to it, and the last is the extension stand, if there is one.

Triangular (not necessarily equilateral) cabinet in the corner, pos. 2, this is most often a simple utility cabinet in that most restless corner, in the bathroom or on the balcony. We will look at a couple of constructions of this kind later.

In living rooms, L-shaped corner cabinets are most often installed, pos. 3, or five-wall cabinets, pos. 4. The L-shaped cabinet is a little more complicated than usual: there is no corner section as such, and the wings are also connected by an L-shaped stand in cross-section, pos. 4a. However, the G-cabinet is not very convenient and aesthetically pleasing, and the ratio of its capacity to occupied space is even less than that of a straight wall cabinet.

The five-wall wardrobe is the most spacious of all, especially since the corner section can store very bulky things, practically without taking away unnecessary usable area. It is durable and stable because... its frame is a rigid spatial structure, pos. 4a. The wings of a corner cabinet, without compromising its stability, can be of different depths, therefore, both in front and in area, it can take up one and a half times less space than a wall cabinet of the same capacity, pos. 4b. And if there is a five-wall closet in the bedroom, then in just one corner there are 2 pencil cases with everything in in this case necessary, pos. 4c.

However, a five-wall cabinet, firstly, is more labor-intensive and requires more precise cutting of parts, which is especially important when making them yourself. Secondly, when designing it (see below), you need to take into account some nuances regarding the doors of the central section.

Take a closer look at how the doors of any cabinet open hidden hinges. When the door is half open, its edge adjacent to the hinge extends a few mm beyond the clearance, and the plane of the fully open door again becomes flush with the side wall of the cabinet. If, instead of an empty space, there is a wing facade nearby, then the door may rest against it and not open completely. To avoid this, the angle between the facades of the central section and the wing adjacent to the hinges of its door must be at least 135 degrees. Therefore, if you are designing a five-wall with wings of unequal depth, the corner door should open towards the deeper wing. And if the depth of the wings is the same, or the corner has 2 doors, then the corner section should be equilateral.

Finally, cabinets that are trapezoidal in plan are occasionally made, pos. 5. They are complex, material- and labor-intensive, and their capacity relative to the occupied area is record-breakingly small. Trapezoidal cabinets are made only when the passage behind the cabinet turns out to be unacceptably narrow and needs to be somehow expanded.

Note: special case – radius cabinets, see fig. on right. They are not only original and modernly elegant, but also durable, spacious and less blocking of passages. But their design is not for everyone and not even for every mid-level salon.

Base or legs?

How to place the cabinet - directly on the floor, on a plinth or pads (legs)? The easiest way to do this is on the floor, but it must be perfectly flat and durable, for example, laid with a laminate over a flowing leveler on a backing without lags. The base is quite labor-intensive and requires extra boards, but it gives the cabinet strength. The bottom of the cabinet on thrust pads, so that it does not sag, must be thick and durable, which can be done more expensive material on the plinth. Therefore, it is recommended to make a cabinet with thrusters only in the kitchen, food pantry, etc. rooms where, as they used to say in the old days, worldly creatures such as cockroaches and mice can infest themselves. It is very difficult to get them out of the basement.

What kind of doors should they be?

If the room where the cabinet will go is spacious enough, then the best option its doors are hinged. They are simpler, cheaper and more reliable than sliding ones. There is only one subtlety here: take hidden hinges not mortise ones, as in factory cabinets, but overhead ones, see fig. In production, they are less technologically advanced and cost-effective, because a backing block is required, but it is much stronger than mortise ones and there is no need to cut out holes in the side walls with a milling cutter.

However, not everyone lives in mansions, so sliding closet doors are the most common. In general, they open less often than interior ones, they don’t slam against drafts, and the only people who walk through the closet into the wall are bigwigs who don’t care what kind of doors there are or whether there are any at all. Therefore, cabinet doors can be made lighter, and the presence of a threshold does not affect the ease of use of the cabinet.

There are dozens of manufacturers of sliding door mechanisms; each produces several systems and tries to bring something new to the product so that it can better push its elbows in the market. The assembly instructions tell you exactly why this product is good, and as a rule, they don’t lie. But comments like, well, our product is more suitable here, and if it’s over there, then it’s better to turn to competitors, of course, don’t wait. Nevertheless, simple general rules for choosing a cabinet door mechanism can be drawn up, especially since there are no fundamental differences in quality between them.

First of all, for a cabinet door you do not need to use expensive mechanisms with a free lower edge of the door sliding in a shoe or along a ridge, see fig. These hanging systems are designed for heavy interior doors and require ceiling leveling. In addition, the bottom of the door leaf in the first case wears out; in the second it turns out to be prone to breakdowns. Protective linings/gutters are sold optionally and the prices are, to put it mildly, somewhat strange. Other mechanisms are suitable for the cabinet, and here the choice depends on the door.

Just doors

If the doors are solid wood or made of chipboard, and the cabinet is on a plinth, then a frameless sliding mechanism is more suitable, because It is cheaper and installing doors is easier with it. The cheapest of these is with top suspension (top travel, top rail) pos. And in Fig. Until recently, they were considered unreliable: when pushed, the doors on the top move would fall inward. But literally over the last 2-3 years, the top stroke has been seriously improved and the flimsiest of the current ones can withstand a blow to the facade of 45 kgf. This is stronger than the splash of a street hooligan or the kick of an overweight, tipsy guest.

For the same doors in a built-in closet, a system with a lower support (bottom rail), pos. B. Here, first, it is better to take a system with separate guides (tracks), pos. B1. Paired tracks require installation precision that is difficult to achieve at home and are designed for boards of a strictly defined thickness. Because of this, designing a cabinet becomes more difficult and the overspend on material may be greater than the savings due to paired tracks.

Further, frameless doors at 4 points of power (tight) contact with the tracks are prone to jamming, so the carriages of the upper rollers (rollers) need to be installed as quad self-aligning ones, pos. B2. But not any for any door.

Threaded fasteners in wood sit tighter if they are wound along the grain rather than across it. In laminated chipboard, on the contrary, self-tapping screws/confirmations are more securely wrapped in the face rather than in the end. That's why wooden doors suspended on end rollers, as in pos. B2. If the doors are made of laminated chipboard, then the rollers must be mounted on axles, i.e. L- or U-shaped brackets, like the lower rollers on pos. A.

Note: For a door with end rollers, a decorative trim covering the rollers and the top track is desirable. But in the hallway it may be superfluous - the gap at the top will provide ventilation for the closet with wet outerwear.

And finally, the lower rollers must, firstly, be adjustable in height, taking into account not only the unevenness of the floor, but also the drying out of the door leaf. Secondly, the lower rollers, especially if the cabinet goes into the hallway, are needed with a 2-axis support-thrust surface, i.e. with a flange, like a railway wheel, pos. B3, and rubber-coated steel; in extreme cases - propylene. Why? The flanged rollers themselves push dirt out of the track groove.

Glass mirror

For a glass/mirror door, the only option well tested in practice is a frame door with a bottom rail made of special profiles, pos. Q. How to assemble it is described in detail in the company’s instructions and on the RuNet, but there are still some things you need to pay attention to.

First, make sure that the profile you like is one of those recommended in the mechanical specifications. As a rule, there are no problems here; the production of accessories for glass doors well developed.

Second, installation of mirror/glass, pos. IN 1. You should only use glass of the recommended thickness with the included seals. It fits into them quite tightly, but if it gets in easily, then it won’t be difficult for it to fall out. To make it easier to frame the glass (profiles are put on it), you need:

Work on a level smooth surface, covered with thick, clean fabric without scars/seams or newspapers in several layers. The pros frame the mirrors on foam boards.
Order mirror/glass with rounded (licked) edges. You can “lick” the ribs yourself with a generously moistened emery block, after first running a wet cloth along the edge of the glass. There is no need to rub until a visible chamfer appears; It is enough to “shrink” it 2-3 times with light pressure so that the rib does not bite the seal.
Before installing the profile, run along the edges of the glass with a clean rag, slightly moistened with any gel detergent for dishes. Soap solution is somewhat worse and dries quickly.
You need to push the profile onto the glass by tapping it evenly along its length with a rubber hammer. Shoving, as they say, while pushing your navel at an angle, is unacceptable.

Third, installation and fine-tuning of the upper rollers (“Asymmetrical roller” in the figure). It is clear that the asymmetry should be in one direction on the canvas, and in different directions for the outer and inner sashes. But, pay attention to the inset at the top right: the same screw holds both the frame sections and the roller. Moreover, the screw is self-tapping, it is screwed only once. Assembling a frame “from scratch” without a mirror, and reassembling it after adjustment is a gross mistake of amateurs. That's why:

The upper assembly screws are initially under-turned by 3-4 mm.
The installation whiskers of the rollers are inserted under the heads of the screws and the screws are screwed in tightly, but not tightly: if the roller is pulled outward with force, it should “crawl out” from under the screw.
They install the door, check the movement, and adjust the lower rollers.
In place, tighten the screws of the upper rollers to failure.

Glasswood

Look at what's on the left in the figure. And on the right is how it was made. Not bad, right? This door has not been tested hanging, but judging by what it has endured over more than 27 years of use, it will hold up. With acrylic glass, which was a rare, expensive curiosity back then, it will definitely hold up. The depth of the groove for glass is from 3 times its thickness.

The secret, firstly, is in aquarium silicone. It is much more expensive than the construction one, but 20 ml was more than enough for a couple of doors. But its strength is simply monstrous. Just take a look at a 200-liter aquarium and imagine what pressure there is from the inside. And the glass is simply glued end to end. Secondly, here the long edges of the glass are securely covered. Breaking glass with a direct blow is not so easy.

Note: Before installing the cabinet doors, you must, of course, check and set the squareness of the opening. It is inconvenient to use a tape measure, since it is not a cast-off foundation open on all sides. A pair of slats with pointed ends, fastened with rubber bands, will help out, see fig. At the first measurement, a mark is made on them with a pencil (pos. 1), and the divergence of its halves on the second will accurately show the difference in the diagonals (pos. 2).

Finally, at pos. G – wardrobe with book doors. The bottom line is that the area taken up for swinging doors, based on a set of ergonomic indicators, depends nonlinearly on the distance of the open door. Therefore, a folding door will take up only 1/4 of the floor area compared to swing door the same width, and its fittings are cheaper than for a sliding door, and never jam.

Material

What is the closet made of? There are 3 options here: laminated chipboard, solid wood (ready-made furniture panels) and measured lumber, i.e. just boards. Let's compare them by cost, complexity and work, strength, durability and aesthetics. Let's take into account that the overall strength of wood is less than laminated chipboard, so the thickness wooden parts we take not 16, but from 24 mm, and unplaned blanks - from 30 mm; 3 mm from each face will be spent on planing.

laminated chipboard

About edges

Cabinet parts made of laminated chipboard need to be edged. Since they cannot be crawled along their edges with elbows, the cabinets are edged with a flat melamine self-adhesive edge, 2 mm front edges and 0.4 mm invisible edges, see fig. on right. Melamine is a heat-resistant material, and you can edge it at home with a hot iron through a clean thin cloth or, better, fluoroplastic film. But first you need to find out what will cost less: edging together with cutting at a furniture company or doing it yourself using edging purchased at retail in small quantities.

Calculation

Laminated chipboard “lives” up to 25-30 years. Then the binder begins to break down, swell, and the ends of the parts take on the appearance of what is shown in Fig. left. A laminated chipboard sheet 2750x1850x16 mm (5 sq. m and 0.08 cubic m) of the 1st grade, glossy, will cost from 4,000 rubles; For a 2-door cabinet you need 2 sheets. Textured laminated chipboard without gloss of the 2nd grade can be found from 1100 rubles/sheet, but its phenol emission class will be from E2, which is unacceptable for residential premises.

Cutting sheets according to the drawing will cost about 500 rubles, and about 1000 more for edging the parts. We don’t count the fittings; they are the same for every cabinet. Total for a laminated chipboard for a cabinet that is 20 years old, “the same as everyone else’s,” is about 9,500 rubles. Let's add another 200 (this is very divine) for confirmations with plugs, because... for laminated chipboard this is the only acceptable option for assemblies, see below. Total about 10 thousand.

Array

Ready-made furniture panels will need the same 5 square meters. m, because They are produced planed with a thickness of 18 mm. Approximate prices per square panel 600 mm wide:

Knotty pine 28 mm (after varnishing with tinted varnish, very beautiful furniture is obtained) – approx. 1850 rub./sq. m, i.e. OK. 9250 rub. on the closet.

Straight-layer pine – 1950 rub./sq. m and 9750 rub. accordingly.

Oak of the same size, 20 mm thick (acceptably, it is durable) - 7,500 rubles / sq. m. m and 37,500 rub. resp.

The fasteners will cost up to 200 rubles; they are made of wood, see below. Still ok. 1500 rub. - for varnish and glue. And the same amount as for laminated chipboard - for cutting, because The material is expensive and learning from it is expensive.

We can already conclude that you should only make a solid pine cabinet with your own hands: solid larch and birch are not much cheaper than oak, and beech, ash, walnut and maple are more expensive. However, solid pine cabinets also last 100-200 years or more.

Board

The edged board for the cabinet will use approximately (30/16) x 0.08 = 0.15 cubic meters. m. Let's give some extra reserve for amateur processing and take 0.25 cubic meters. m. Pine will cost approx. 5000 rub./cubic. m; oak and beech – approx. 24,000 rub./cubic. m. That is per cabinet - approx. 1250 and 6000 rub. respectively; for fasteners, varnish and glue - as in previous. case.

There is another argument in favor natural wood. Take a look at fig. Such doors can be made from laminated chipboard and self-adhesive only in a thermal vacuum chamber, i.e. in production. But it’s difficult to do it from wood, but you can do it at home, using a hand router with a shaped cutter, that’s where the emphasis is. The curves are drawn by attaching a template to the corresponding edge of the workpiece. You can also practice cutting/simple carving by buying an extra board, it won’t be ruinous. To practice working skills, cheap pine or any wooden scraps will do.

Nevertheless, homemade wardrobe It takes a long time and is difficult to make from boards. First, purchased lumber must be kept for outdoors under a canopy from autumn to summer. This will be a complete analogue of industrial preparation by steaming to 100% humidity followed by drying with superheated steam. Next, the boards will need to be dried in a warm, dry room again until autumn: the cabinet is not a stool, the wood moisture content needs to be up to 6%.

Then the boards will need to be joined together with the boards, like a table top dining table, using a homemade wire. They are assembled onto a smooth fugue, but not plywood, but from the same wood, or on dowels, see below.

Note: Boards for furniture must be purchased of absolutely good quality, without the slightest trace of rot and mold. Boards bleached with wood restorers are not suitable.

Summary of the material

In general, if you want to make at least some kind of cabinet in a couple of weekends until you have some money for good purchased furniture, then the only option is laminated chipboard on confirmed materials. If you intend to pass on your memory to your children and grandchildren in the form of homemade furniture(which by that time may have become a valuable antique), then you should consider the option of a wooden cabinet. Moreover, a plank made of valuable wood will cost no more than a homemade one a quick fix from laminated chipboard.

Connections

How to connect cabinet parts? Eccentrics, pos. 1 in Fig., discard immediately. These are connections of inexpensive quick-assembled/disassembled furniture; simply - consumer goods: brought, molded/inserted, spun, took money, ran away.

Thread profile and head configuration of confirmats, pos. 2, specially designed for laminated chipboards; wood on confirmed mats holds up worse, and laminated chipboard on wood-to-wood joints, see below, is generally very bad. Just keep in mind that, in addition to furniture confirmations with a hex head, there are plumbing ones, for plastic, with a Phillips slot. They are not interchangeable!

For confirmations you need a special drill, below at pos. 2, for each standard size of these hardware there is one. Holes for confirmations must be drilled along the conductor, pos. 3, otherwise the probability of one of the boards splitting during assembly is very high. Road conductor, for one-time work it is better to rent it.

It is also advisable to drill holes in the dowel connection along the jig, pos. 4, this is the best way to assemble wooden furniture. The fact is that the lignin of dowels and boards is gradually welded into a single mass, and the connection on the dowels gains strength over time. Furniture restorers are well familiar with this phenomenon.

Note: if the furniture is of the kind that can immediately experience extreme loads (say, a bed), then the dowels are installed with wedging. But we will leave the description of this technology until the appropriate occasion.

Ready-made dowels and blanks for them of different sizes are available for sale and are inexpensive. They need to be of the same type as the boards being joined, but harder: for pine - larch dowels, for furniture made of deciduous wood - oak. Oak is collected on oak dowels.

Also, a wide range of dowels (lamellas) are sold for joining panels from boards, pos. 5. The rules for choosing dowels are the same as dowels. As for the box connection pos. 6, then you need to learn how to make it if you are planning a real wooden cabinet that will last forever. In other cases, you can do it simpler, see below about filling, especially since the drawers, like removable modules, can be remade later.

About drywall cabinets

Drywall (gypsum board) is widely used in construction. But this is a finishing material, not a structural one. Therefore, when thinking about a gypsum board cabinet, keep in mind:

It will require a complex frame made of special C- and U-profiles, pos. 1 in Fig., and a lot of fasteners.

This cabinet cannot be moved.

To hang the doors you will have to do wooden frame on the facade, because the hinges in the profiles do not hold in place and the entire frame is immediately prevented from using the doors.

Drywall scratches and crumbles easily, so you should not place heavy, hard or sharp objects on the shelves.

In fact, a plasterboard cabinet is used in 2 cases. The first is a radius rack in a room with curved walls, pos. 2, because It is quite possible to make parts bent in one plane from gypsum board at home. The same cannot be said, however, about radius doors, without which a closet is not a closet.

The second is a simple corner cabinet for household items, pos. 3. GCR scraps left over from suspended ceiling and so on. With the indicated dimensions, a complex frame is not needed, but if there are doors, then the facade frame is still required.

Filling

Boxes

A “real” cabinet drawer is designed like a nightstand, see picture, only the dimensions are different. But at first, so as not to delay the work, it is better to assemble boxes using confirmed materials from Simple chipboard sanded, without texture, and painted. The decorative facade can then be rearranged onto the “correct” box of the same size. Or maybe leave it as is: a thick, durable bottom will allow you to use lower guides with a high load-bearing capacity.

Cabinet drawers are always used more intensively and are loaded more than in a bedside table; They often put something in them/look for something in the depths. Therefore, you should not place them on homemade wooden guides. By the way, the first attempts to make full extension guides for cabinet drawers date back neither more nor less... to the 15th century. This is how jamming and distortions plagued furniture makers even then.

Drawer guides are divided into bottom and side, depending on the method of attachment to the drawer. But this division is very arbitrary, because both ultimately hold onto the walls/partitions of the cabinet, which determines the strength of the suspension as a whole. When choosing guides, more attention should be paid to the technological gaps on the sides and between the drawers: the space “eaten up” by them significantly affects the capacity and cost of the product.

For kitchen cabinet drawers, which, however, needs a separate discussion, you need bottom guides like metaboxes or their equivalents. The weakest of them hold a full load of 20 kg, and there are models with 50-70 kg, even if you dump a sack of potatoes in a box. But metaboxes are by no means cheap, but by default they are equipped with closers, i.e. the pulled out drawer slides back completely on its own with a slight push by hand.

For ordinary drawers, ordinary lower roller guides will do, as, say, for a keyboard board computer desk, at the top in Fig. Their closer works rather roughly and a heavy box does not always close completely, but they are cheap and at full reach they hold up to 12-15 kg, including the weight of the box.

Boxes for books, tools, etc. It’s better to put it on Kulkov ball guides, down there. They are relatively inexpensive, practically eternal (no plastic parts), do not require technical clearances at the top and bottom, and can hold up to 20 kg at full reach. There is only one drawback: there is no closer.

Shelves

You can’t say much about the shelves: the board is just like a board. Thickness from 16 mm for chipboard, from 24 mm for pine, from 18 mm for oak. The laminated chipboard is closed “on the face” with a 2 mm edge, and on the sides and back - 0.4 mm, which must be taken into account when designing. There is no need to neglect edging so that the board does not crumble and collect dust. But, depending on the overall tone of the finish, instead of edging, you can take sanded chipboard, prime it and paint it.

There are also only 3 tricks in the shelf holders. First, do not take metal ones made of aluminum-magnesium alloy, but plastic ones made of PVC or polyethylene. The first are fragile, the second are weak. Second - take it with fastening with self-tapping screws. Plug-in ones with smooth pins will break out of their sockets over time. And the third - for an unpretentious utility cabinet, very durable and reliable shelf holders are made from scraps of plinth, see fig.

Barbell

Now in fashion is the so-called. end rods for hangers, see fig. But, frankly speaking, they are for avid tidyists: summer blouses here, shirts there, and pants-skirts here and nowhere else. The end rods do not increase the capacity of the cabinet; they just make it less clear where things hang. And take any ordinary longitudinal rods according to your taste and pocket, there are no unsuitable ones for sale.

Project

Independently designing a cabinet and furniture in general is not very difficult these days: there are convenient computer programs. Among the Russian-speaking ones, PRO100 and Basis-Mebelshchik are popular for free distribution. Both are quite powerful and functional, but the first is more suitable for virtual arrangement furniture in the interior, and the second for the detailed design of individual products.

Both software come with training videos, they are available in RuNet and separately. But, as with any new software, experienced users may also have some general confusion. Namely: where to start, where to go and where to arrive. No one has yet come up with a uniquely linear system of bookmarks with tools/options. And this is hardly possible for creatures with an intelligence higher than that of a fire pump. For Basis-Furniture Maker, the general instructions for designing a cabinet look like this:

We enter the overall dimensions of the cabinet according to on-site measurements, this is the most critical stage;

We set the dimensions of the base, bottom and roof;

We assemble the back wall (fibreboard by default) with stiffeners (drawbars, chipboard by default);

Let's compose internal partitions, vertical and horizontal, according to the division of the cabinet into sections. Which ones and how many – you decide, not the program;

We fill boxes. Basis-Furniture Maker does not automatically install shelves, rods, baskets, because... they are mounted in a ready-made cabinet on site;

We enter the dimensions of the cabinet doors, but they need to be designed separately;

Optionally we add mezzanines and open side racks;

We place the edges and fittings in their places;

We send drawings and specifications for printing with the exact dimensions of the parts: these are exactly what we need to purchase, order, saw, drill, cut.

Assembly

About production individual modules It was said above in the course of the presentation, so let’s move straight to how to put it all together. Assembling a cabinet made of laminated chipboard on confirmed mats is not technologically difficult and is carried out in the following order:

They try on the bottom and sides locally: was there any mistake when measuring the dimensions, position. 1 in Fig.;

They assemble the base box and install internal partitions, because they are attached through the bottom, pos. 2;

Place the side panels in place (carry the workpiece carefully!) so that the base fits exactly on the floor, pos. 3;

They put on the roof;

They move the cabinet aside, it is already strong enough, and sew up the back wall;

Slide the cabinet into place and install the filling;

Take out drawers, shelves, a bar (if it is in your pockets and not tightly secured), baskets, etc.;

Install doors;

Assemble and install mezzanines with racks, if any.

Assembling a wooden cabinet on dowels is different in that the internal partitions are placed after the sides, because otherwise they may break when moving the workpiece. And also because there is enough technical reserve under the ceiling for a cabinet without mezzanines: protrusion of dowels + roof thickness + (10-12) mm.

Special cases

The first is the hallway. Firstly, it needs a wardrobe that is small in width; English halls are not in use here. It is advisable to combine it with a hanger, then you will need a sliding single-door wardrobe, see fig. on the right, because Sometimes damp clothes will be hung in it and they will dry out in a sealed box. We also need more shelves for gloves, hats, scarves, summer clothes, and, of course, shoes. But there may be no boxes at all.

Schemes of cabinets in the hallway, hinged and sliding, are shown in Fig. The first is designed for a family of 2-3 people; the second is bachelor. The depth of the first is determined based on the minimum permissible passage width of 900 mm. If you want to make it sliding, you need to add 170-220 mm to it, depending on the chosen door hanging system.

The second is a balcony. It’s not worth putting a closet there, arranged like a room: it will block a lot of light and dust collectors will form, see fig. For a balcony you need a cabinet made primarily of horizontal modules, or an unequal angled one.

A drawing of a cabinet, suitable for extremely narrow balconies of Khrushchev-era buildings, is shown on the left in the figure, and a corner one is shown on the right in the same place. The latter will not block the escape hatch yet, because... is placed in the gap between the fire escape and the wall, which otherwise wastes space.

Finally

Let's hope that this publication has at least a little clearer to you in detail on how to make a cabinet yourself. And as an example of the general progress of work on the manufacture of a wardrobe, we offer a video. For the rest - good luck, patience, ingenuity, accuracy!

Video: DIY wardrobe assembly

Instead of struggling with choosing furniture for a small apartment, it’s better to learn how to make a corner wardrobe with your own hands. After all, no matter how little space there is, the corners in the hallway, kitchen, and rooms remain empty. A hand-made cabinet will not only solve the problem of placing things, it will elegantly decorate the interior.

Design

There is no exemplary standard design that a corner wardrobe must comply with. It can be built-in (when you only need to install doors) or cabinet-mounted, have different sizes, different numbers of sides (triangular, trapezoidal, L- or U-shaped).

In recent years, a radius sliding wardrobe has become popular, which is a furniture structure devoid of sharp corners. Lovers of beauty will undoubtedly appreciate the curved doors that slide along the corresponding profiles. This layout allows you to save space and elegantly solve the storage problem. large quantity of things.

In Fig.2. angular are diagram No. 1 (concave), No. 2 (convex), No. 5 (convex column of a massive furniture structure or a free-standing small wardrobe). All other options for radius sliding wardrobes can be obtained by combining the 6 initial types listed above.

Radius is beautiful and functional

The movement of the radius cabinet doors is smooth and almost silent. Similar characteristics are provided by the profile included in the sliding mechanism. Manufacturers offer it in steel or aluminum. We recommend choosing the second option for the following reasons:

increased resistance to damage;
minimizing noise when the door slides.

Price aluminum profile higher than steel. However, over the course of long-term use, you will appreciate your choice.

The wall thickness must be at least 0.12 cm. A thicker profile increases the reliability of fastening. High-quality components are produced by Komandor, Absolut, Raumplus, Aristo, and others. If the height of the radius cabinet is above 3 m, we recommend taking the Raumplus profile.

The doors of a radius sliding wardrobe can be with an upper sliding system or with a lower one. In the first case, the doors hang on rollers. Movement is carried out along the upper guide. The initial impression of the suspension system is excellent. However, the large load on the upper horizon causes its gradual sagging. Hanging system wears out quickly, without regular Maintenance can suddenly lock the door at the most inopportune moment.

The second sliding system looks preferable for daily household use. The sash slides along the bottom guide, the door is attached and fixed along the top. The load is distributed evenly, the assembled structure will last longer.

Door elements

Assembling corner wardrobes with your own hands without a diagram showing the exact dimensions is impossible. Particular attention must be paid to the moving part of the structure - the doors. You cannot miss anything or take the wrong size; in such a case, the doors will not be able to be used normally.

Before assembling your closet, let's take a closer look at the elements of doors with a bottom sliding system:

Vertical side profiles can be symmetrical or asymmetrical. During operation they are used as handles. Symmetrical profiles look the same on both sides, asymmetrical ones create a difference between the outer and external parties.
The asymmetrical rollers located at the top are designed to fix the sashes in the opening.
The upper door frame is necessary for attaching wheels to it, as well as for subsequent fixation of the structure.
The lower door frame is used to install the lower wheels and ensure proper sliding of the doors.
Internal door filler (wood, glass, mirror) performs decorative function, gives the entire interior a touch of individuality.
The seal attached to the vertical side profiles, in addition to softening the impact of the door on the cabinet wall, protects the moving structure from dust.
The door plug is used to secure the side vertical profiles.
The assembly and adjustment screws allow you to change the sliding speed of the sashes.
The stopper makes it possible to fix the door and avoid unintended opening of the doors.

Calculation of cabinet capacity

Any step-by-step instructions will give you confidence in the work you have started, but without a preliminary assessment of capacity, the result will be disappointing. Before drawing drawings and studying the assembly manual, decide what you will put on the shelves or hang. Then it will be difficult to move the functional sections; a beautiful-looking cabinet can become a source of bad mood.

to arrange things according to the season, provide at least 2 sections for outerwear;
when installing recessed lamps, the upper horizon of the cabinet is moved forward by 12-17 cm;
not only convenient, but also functional when the depth of the shelves is at least 60 cm;
shelf widths of more than 65 cm increase the risk of them sagging;
the intershelf distance should be no more than 35 cm;
accept a door width of 50 cm; smaller sizes may cause the guides to fall out;
the number of functional compartments should be proportional to the number of sashes;
When designing the dimensions of drawers, pay attention Special attention on the location of the door frames, too wide it will be impossible to reach;
doors must be the same width;
depends on the thickness of the chipboard appearance and cabinet strength;
The material for the roof, side walls, and doors will be chipboard; the back wall can be made of fiberboard 3 mm thick.

The most practical option is to make a built-in radius wardrobe. This design will easily blend with the walls, hide possible defects, and require less material consumption and time. Housewives will appreciate the absence of gaps between the wall and the cabinet, where dust constantly accumulates

Assembling the closet

To install the designed cabinet you will definitely need:

screwdriver;
hammer;
square;
drill;
pencil.

Before you begin assembling the structure, also make sure you have:

drawings;
furniture board 18 mm;
doors and guides;
“insides” of the cabinet (drawers, hangers, handles);
door fittings, screws, dowels;
side, bottom and top false panels.

Step by step order builds:

Taking measurements and drawing “on the ground” where the cabinet will be installed (you will need a pencil and a level). Marked on the wall vertical racks, on the floor and ceiling - profiles.
Determining the location for the shelves, drilling holes for the dowels, hammering them in with a hammer.
Fastening profiles for shelves to the wall, installing their lower holders.
Marking the mezzanine shelf and fastening it with self-tapping screws.
Adjusting the side wall to size and installing it.
Installation of internal “filling” (shelves, drawers, etc.).
Installation of pre-prepared false panels, attaching them to the floor, ceiling, side wall with a screwdriver.
Cutting and bending the upper and lower profiles (don’t forget to insert 1 stopper per door), attaching them with screws to the false panel.
Installation of the assembled door. The description of the actions is as follows:

decorating with self-adhesive film (if necessary),
installation of vertical profiles with screws,
installation door seal,
securing the upper and lower door frames,
attaching the bottom and top of the rollers,
inserting the top guide, then the bottom,
checking the correct sliding, adjusting it (if required) with a hexagon.

A sliding wardrobe saves space on its own, and if it is made in a corner, then this is the most successful option. It doesn’t attract too much attention to itself, leaves a lot of free space in the apartment, and there’s so much you can put in it! It’s quite possible to make it convenient corner wardrobe with your own hands.

Design Features

Unlike its ordinary counterparts, the corner wardrobe is always designed to be stationary. It is created to fit the dimensions of a specific angle and does not imply its movement.

First you need to decide what kind of corner cabinet you need. Main types of construction:

triangular;
trapezoidal;
L-shaped;
"five-walled"

In addition, cabinets can be built-in or cabinet. A built-in closet is essentially a small storage room. The shelves in it are mounted directly on the walls, and the space is enclosed by a door. The cabinet cabinet has a base, top cover and back wall, at least made of thin fiberboard sheets.

The most space-efficient one is a triangular cabinet: it has no side walls. Its depth will be determined only by the width of the walls that you are willing to “give up”. The remaining cabinets are a little more difficult to manufacture and will have additional depth.

If you decide to make a corner wardrobe with your own hands, it makes sense to use the entire space from floor to ceiling to ensure maximum capacity.

It is very important to take into account the features of the angle itself. If there are unevenness on the floor or walls, they must be leveled, because they may affect the operation of the sliding door mechanism. In addition, experts recommend doing all preliminary measurements only after leveling the walls and floor! Pay attention to the plinth near the floor or under the ceiling - will it allow you to install a cabinet?

Today, it is popular to manufacture a radius cabinet, the facade of which is made in the form of a semicircle or wave. Such furniture fits harmoniously into the most different interiors. This type of cabinet is especially good for a large hallway and bedroom. Very popular for the kitchen corner option made of plasterboard - it is easy to implement and takes up very little space.

When you make drawings of the interior of such a cabinet, you need to take into account its purpose. If this is a hallway closet, it should have a rod for outerwear, shelves for shoes (possibly high ones for boots), shelves for hats and accessories, space for umbrellas, gloves, etc. In the living room, a wardrobe can serve as storage for books, documents, blankets and bedspreads, and beautiful dishes. Accordingly, the main thing in it is the shelves. A small safe can also be provided. A wardrobe for a bedroom usually holds clothes, linen, bed sheets. It contains a bar, drawers, shelves, and cells.

Step-by-step instruction

Once the cabinet diagrams and sketches have been created and approved by your household, you can begin making the cabinet. You will need following materials and tools (sample list):

furniture board;
metallic profile and a roller mechanism for doors;
fiberboard sheets for the back wall (if it is intended);
drawers, doors, rods, hooks;
accessories;
false panels (if necessary);
perforator;
screwdriver;
"hexagon";
“level” (to assess the evenness of the shelves);
glue, ruler, tape measure, pencil;
triangle;
screwdrivers, hammer;
fasteners (bolts, confirmations, supports for shelves, etc.)

According to the experience of many men who have already created cabinets with their own hands, cutting the boards and their external edging is best left to professionals: take the material to a workshop where there is special tool for precise cutting. They can also do original milling on the facades. You can “cut” shelves and parts for drawers yourself – i.e. interior filling of the cabinet.

If your closet is built-in, first of all you need to mark the boundaries on the floor where the doors will be. The same lines need to be applied to the ceiling. Then shelves and rods are screwed to the walls using a hammer drill and other tools. The final touch is to install the door guides and the doors themselves.

For a cabinet with back walls and a bottom, the cabinet base or podium is first assembled and installed. Then the long and important process of drilling holes begins. You must first carefully mark all attachment points. Then you can drill. If the hole is made on a plane, an 8mm drill will be required. For end holes - 5 mm, and its depth should not exceed 60 mm.

Each cabinet created by yourself is unique, so it is impossible to create a universal description that would suit everyone. But there are some general principles for assembling furniture of this type.

First, the frame of the cabinet is assembled - that is, its vertical walls and partitions, which are fastened together by horizontals - the base, the top cover, etc. Then shelves and rods are screwed to the side walls. Carriages for drawers are attached. A metal sliding door mechanism is attached to the top and bottom. After this, the back wall is attached (usually it consists of several sheets of fiberboard, cut to fit the sections of the cabinet). Then the drawers and doors are installed.

Ideally, the cabinet should be assembled “lying down” - i.e. laying out the parts on the floor. This gives you a better chance of completing the assembly accurately. But this is not always possible due to limited space. Additionally, a tall cabinet that almost reaches the ceiling can be very difficult to lift. The main rule for assembling “standing up” is to assemble all the parts from the bottom up - the base, side walls and partitions, then the shelves, etc.

Carefully thought out sketch good scheme, a little patience and precision - and your own corner cabinet will delight you for many years!

The sliding wardrobe, invented in the USA, has become widely used as the main type of storage for household items and clothing. In our country, this type of furniture appeared only in the middle of the last century. This is surprising because many of us have lived in small apartments, in which its advantages are obvious.

Planning a corner wardrobe with allocation of space for storing things and shoes.

Domestic craftsmen were in no hurry to make a wardrobe with their own hands. The reason is that the cabinet version, except for sliding doors instead of casement ones, has no other advantages over the usual wardrobe.

It is much easier to make a built-in wardrobe with your own hands. Its manufacture will require significantly less material, and even an inexperienced carpenter can make such a compartment on his own. With a smaller footprint, this storage option will have a larger volume than a cabinet storage option.

Sliding wardrobe design: distinctive features

Drawing of a corner wardrobe with dimensions.

The sliding doors of the first wardrobes produced by our industry did not have rollers for movement. At the bottom there was a longitudinal tenon along which the door moved, which had a groove along the lower end.

This simple design was quite reliable. Its disadvantage was that moving the doors required great effort, because the cabinet itself and the doors were made of heavy material, which was chipboard at that time.

You can make a sliding wardrobe with your own hands, built-in or in a regular mobile version. You can also make a corner cabinet yourself, either built-in or cabinet-mounted.

A corner wardrobe with your own hands must be made in relation to a specific place.

In plan, it can have the shape of a triangle, trapezoid, L or U-shape. Among other types, five-walled can be distinguished. This design has the shape of a pentagon with 3 right and 2 obtuse angles.

Stages of preparation for making a five-wall

When making a wardrobe with your own hands, do not try to saw it at home sheet material, from which the side walls and doors will be made. It is almost impossible to manually achieve the required dimensional accuracy, especially for a corner wardrobe. Having decided on the dimensions of its sides and doors, it is advisable to use the services of a workshop where it is possible to ensure the required cutting accuracy. It is also advisable to process the ends that will be visible from the outside. The elements located inside the cabinet can be made independently.

Scheme for assembling a sliding door for a corner closet.

Before making a corner compartment with your own hands, check the installation location. This is especially important for the built-in option. Any unevenness in the floor or ceiling where the doors will move must be corrected. Otherwise, there will be problems with installing guides for moving doors.

Make sure not electrical outlets and other elements that may affect the installation of a wardrobe with your own hands. Consider the size of the baseboards and, if any, moldings on the walls under the ceiling.

It is not advisable to save on a sliding door system. More expensive Italian or German designs will pay for themselves due to reliability and long-term operation.

There is no point in showing the specific design of the carriages. There are quite a lot of them, and each of them has its own installation characteristics. First you need to figure out how to install: the dimensions of the cabinet elements will depend on this. A more reliable option is a door with an upper running carriage. At the bottom of the door there will be a roller moving along a guide.

Before you start making a sliding wardrobe with your own hands, you should have the appropriate tools. When making a built-in version, a hammer drill is required. You will need a power tool to screw in the screws. It is advisable to have a manual circular saw with a guide ruler. A hand saw will also work.

Drilling holes in chipboard is the main operation when assembling furniture

Scheme of the design of a corner wardrobe.

To fasten panels made for furniture from chipboard, confirmats are used. Typically, confirmats with dimensions D×L = 6.4×50 mm are used for furniture. This mount has d=4.4 mm. The hole diameter for it should be in the range of 4.5-5 mm. With a larger diameter, the fastening will not be reliable; with a smaller diameter, the confirmat can destroy the fiberboard material.

To drill holes, special drills are used, which drill to a depth L and provide the appropriate dimensions in the upper part of the confirmat (H and h). Then the surface of the slab is countersunk to fit the cap. Screw in the confirmation without putting much effort, using a special hex key.

3 drilling options:

drilling through the entire thickness;
drilling in the end;
drilling in 2 parts at the same time.

Another, most difficult option is drilling for dowels. The general condition for all types of drilling is the perpendicular position of the drill to the surface.

Let's consider the option of drilling in 2 parts. The parts are applied to each other and secured using corner clamps or other device. After this, marking and drilling are performed. This option is the fastest and most accurate. To determine the mark based on the thickness of the chipboard, it is advisable to make a template from wood or aluminum corner. If chipboard thickness is 16 mm, then the center of the hole in the template should be exactly in the middle.

Options for corner wardrobes.

If the parts are connected in such a way that the holes are drilled separately, then the strength of the fastening depends on the accuracy of the markings. This is how you have to drill when connecting parts to dowels. For example, to install a cabinet lid on dowels, holes are first made in it using a drill with a diameter of 8 mm with a limiter that does not allow drilling through it. Holes from the edge of the cover are drilled taking into account the indentation of the sidewalls, if provided. Using the same drill, holes are made in the sidewalls to a depth of 20 mm. The accuracy of the marking determines whether the dowels will fit into the holes. The ends of the dowels are placed on glue. When assembling, craftsmen do not recommend pouring glue into the holes on the lid; you may have to disassemble the cabinet.

Corner wardrobes are extremely ergonomic: due to their beveled shape, they do not appear bulky and, at the same time, are extremely spacious. Let's look at examples of how to make a corner cabinet with your own hands - what models can be implemented, what the typical dimensions and contents may be, and how to calculate the details using the example of ready-made drawings and diagrams.

Designs, drawings and photos of corner cabinets

Conventionally, corner cabinets can be divided into two categories: beveled trapezoidal and strictly rectangular, with diagonally and perpendicularly located facades. In both cases, the cabinet can be:

Symmetrical and asymmetrical.
With separate mezzanines and without mezzanines.
Combined filling and allocated exclusively for shelves or hangers.
With internal or external drawers.
With a different number of facades (one-door, two-door, three-door).
In the form of display cases, open shelving and designed for storing clothes.

We will only consider do-it-yourself wardrobe (dressing) corner wardrobe plans.

Corner cabinets with perpendicular doors, most often, represent an attached composition of two ordinary cabinets of a slightly modified design. In rare cases, there may be cast structures, especially if the front part is sliding, like an accordion.

The advantage of corner cabinets trapezoidal shape is large capacity and functionality. For example, the width of the outer sides can be reduced to a minimum and this will not interfere with placing hangers with bulky clothes - after all, the inner part expands towards the center.

Do-it-yourself corner cabinet: deciding on the dimensions

Before wondering how to make a corner cabinet with your own hands, you need to decide on the overall dimensions. Ergonomic shapes attract many, but it is not always possible to achieve what you want if the allotted space for placement is too small.

The smallest dimensions of a corner cabinet with your own hands can be compared to the typical dimensions of a kitchen wall unit. It occupies 600x600mm from the corner. In order for the facade to be of sufficient width (400 mm minimum), the depth of the pillars (sidewalls) is set to no more than 300 mm. Naturally, with such dimensions there is no question of placing the barbell under the hangers. Only shelves or hooks for clothes.

For corner wardrobe, with a compartment for hanging clothes, the distance from the corner, at least on one side, must be at least 800mm. Then the depth of the stand can be set at 450mm, which is quite enough for hangers with light clothes (for “men’s” and outerwear, 500mm is required). Do-it-yourself corner cabinet diagrams are approximately the same, in the ratio of the depth of the stand and the remaining space for the facade.

With asymmetrical options, it is quite possible to implement your plan with dimensions ranging from an angle of 850x650mm, 800x700mm, etc.

How to make a corner cabinet with your own hands using the example of a drawing

Let's consider a typical symmetrical model, with overall dimensions 2100x900x900mm. A do-it-yourself drawing of a corner cabinet will look like this.

Along one of the sides, the width of the body allows for the placement of shelves; they must be made taking into account the required space for hanging the rod - from 500mm minimum. Drawers can be built into the section with shelves. The only nuance that should be taken into account in the future is the placement of hinges on the facade. The loop should not “get” into either the drawer or the shelf!

The height of the cabinet allows for the placement of two rods under clothes. A distance of 900-1100 mm is sufficient for short jackets and shirts, and the hem of long dresses can simply be “thrown” over the lower rod. Or you can make a shelf at the top or bottom, for hats or shoes.

How to calculate the details of a corner cabinet with your own hands

After you have decided on the dimensions of the corner cabinet with your own hands, internal filling, you can start calculating the details. The simplest option is in the form of a table in the Excel office program.

We write down all the details in strict accordance with the texture of the drawing, first the length, then the width. If you enter the formula into a tabular form for calculating the square footage of each part, you can sum it up and roughly estimate how much volume the cabinet will “flow into.”
At the same time we denote visible sides, which will need to be rolled up with an edge in units. Formulas will also help you pre-calculate the footage of the end tape.
I recommend highlighting the details irregular shape so as not to lose sight of them (for example, as in the table below - yellow). And also clearly show along which side they will be rolled with an edge.
You can see how to calculate the size of the fronts for a corner cabinet. Strictly speaking, the facade part can be made of another material - for example, MDF or solid wood.
A similar method is considered to be detailing fiberboard.

DIY corner cabinet cutting cards

The calculated dimensions of parts from Excel are transferred to a special cutting program. Parts for which the direction of the pattern is unimportant (for example, stiffeners, plinths, internal shelves) can be rotated to minimize waste. In our case, there is a reason to make the front part from a different material - the body of the corner cabinet with your own hands economically “lays” on two sheets.

The cutting can be ordered from a third party along with PVC seaming. Typically, such services are provided by all companies selling chipboards. At home, rolling up PVC is quite labor-intensive and is unlikely to be possible accurately. You will have to be content with melamine tape, the only advantage of which is its low cost. The table shows that you will need 28.83 linear meters. But it’s better to take it with a reserve, + 10-15%.

How to mark cabinet parts for drilling

If you correctly mark and drill all the parts on the corner cabinet with your own hands, then in the end it will be assembled very simply, like a construction set. The most convenient way to do this is in special furniture programs, for example, Basis Furniture Maker.

The principles are simple:

Furniture is assembled using Euroscrews (confirmats).
The parts are drilled into the end and with front side.
The distance from the edge of the front side part should be the same. For example, 50 mm. Or in the center.

After the fasteners are placed, we number the parts. If there are parts of the same size, but with different fastening principles, we use additional markings (a, b, etc.).

In Basis Furniture Maker you can get specifications for drilling in this form.

But here you need to be careful, clearly understand where the “face” of the corner cabinet part is, and where the “wrong side” is, along the edge-rolled sides. The program does not see this nuance; it places the fasteners from left to right. And during the drilling process, you may come across parts that need to be mirrored. In principle, it is not difficult. Anyway, with the drilling specifications, the whole process will go much faster.

How much will it cost to make a corner cabinet with your own hands?

By correctly drawing up the drawings of a corner cabinet with your own hands, all the design stages, the risks of errors that lead to inevitable additional expenses are reduced to zero. If you make any furniture with your own hands, it always costs less. Actually, nothing prevents you from predicting costs before starting all work. Find out all the prices for materials, fittings and hardware in your city that will be required when making a cabinet with your own hands, and enter it into a simple excel sheet.

The most significant costs will be for the purchase of chipboard and cutting. We took a standard model - changes up or down by 100-200mm will not change the material consumption significantly. It will also take approximately 2-3 sheets depending on the number of shelves and fronts (whether they will be ordered separately or not).