Printmakers Media Cabinet – The Reveal

Its been six weekends of hard work, but we finally reached the final stretch of the printmakers media cabinet project.

This is where we left off. The cabinet was built and sanded and ready for finishing. If you missed it, check out part one, two, three, four, and five of the project.)

Cabinet built
Cabinet built and ready for stain & hardware

Next up we took all the drawers outside, and set up a staining station, and gave everything a coat of wood conditioner.

Wood Conditioner
The drawers & doors ready for wood conditioner
DIY Tip: Put your cabinet on scrap wood to make it easier to stain the bottoms of the legs
DIY Tip: Put your cabinet on scrap wood to make it easier to stain the bottoms of the legs

After letting the wood conditioner sit for half an hour, we set out to staining. We had done many a test on stain, and came across a cool technique we wanted to try on the cabinet. It involved wetting the wood, then putting on oil based stain on top of the water, then quickly wiping away. It left an almost zebra like effect. We knew it was going to be a risk, but decided to give it a try none the less. It involved several hours staining, many a swear word, lots of teamwork, and a whole lot of second guessing.

Cabinet stained
Cabinet stained

We took two days to stain everything, the first day we did the cabinet and all the drawer & door fronts. The next day we stained the interior of the cabinet and the drawer boxes. For the interior, we didn’t bother doing our stain technique, and instead just used the stain traditionally.

After the stain dried, we applied several coats of polyurethane, sanding with a 320 grit sandpaper in between coats. We put a total of 5 coats on the top of the cabinet, and three everywhere else.

We use Oil-Modified Polyurethane with a foam brush
We use Oil-Modified Polyurethane with a foam brush
Drawers & doors mid-polyurthaning
Drawers & Doors mid-poly

Once the poly had dried, we set to installing hardware. The screws that came with our cup pulls were too short for the double thick drawers, and too long for the single thickness doors. So we headed to the hardware store and picked up longer screws for the drawers, and El Granto cut down the screws with the dremel for the doors.

Ready for Hinges
Pulls attached to door fronts, and ready for hinge installation

After the handles were installed, we set to installing the hinges, stays and clasps for the doors.

Installing hinges on the doors
Installing hinges on the doors

This involved a whole load of finikity work, lots of tiny screws, and stubby little screw drivers to fit into the cabinet.

Attaching hinges to the cabinet
Attaching hinges to the cabinet
Attaching claps to keep the doors closed
Attaching claps to keep the doors closed

Next up, we needed to add the lid stays to make sure the doors dont open too far. We wanted them to stop at 90 degrees.

Installing lid stays
Installing lid stays

We used a square to hold the door at 90 degrees and attached the stays with small screws.

Now we could set to putting all our electronics into the cabinet. To keep things neat, we installed power bars to underneith the back of the shelves. This keeps the cords off the ground, and makes it so that the cabinet can sit flush with the wall.

The view of underneath the shelf in the cabinet showing the power bar.
The view of underneath the shelf in the cabinet showing the power bar.

We routed all the cables and electronics as best we could through the cabinet, and its so much more organized than our old media center!

The electronics all tucked into the cabinet
The electronics all tucked into the cabinet

Enough with the technical stuff, are you ready to see what it looks like all finished?

DRUMROLL PLEASE

photo 3(6)

photo 5(2)

Drawer

photo 1(4)

photo 2(3)

photo 5(4)

Now a little comparison between our cabinet and our inspiration: the Restoration Hardware Printmakers Media Cabinet. (ours on top, the RH cabinet below)

image

What do you think?!

SOURCE LIST:

Plans:
DIY Plans for an RH Inspired Printmakers Media Console – Design Confidential *(a BIG Thanks to Rayan @ Design Confidential! Her plans are awesome!)

Materials:

Hardware: ($130)
15 cup pulls – Lee Valley
6 inset hinges – Lee Valley
6 sets drawer slides – Lee Valley
3 lid stays – Lee Valley
3 cabinet clips – Lee Valley
8 1 1/2″ felt furniture pads – Dollarama

Lumber: ($100)
8 – 2x2x8 – Downtown Lumber
2 – 1x6x8 – Downtown Lumber
5 – 1x10x6 pine shelves – Home Depot
3 – 1x2x8 Downtown Lumber
6 – 1x4x8 – Downtown Lumber

Finishing/Misc: ($50)
Wood conditioner (already owned)
Stain – Varathane “Kona” – Home Depot
Polyurethane – Minwax Oil Modified in Satin
Minwax Stainable wood filler – Home Depot
Kreg Screws – Lee Valley & Home Depot
Foam brushes – Dollarama
Shop rags
Sand paper

Tools Used:
Kreg Jig
Drill
Mitre saw
Table saw
Palm sander
Square
Level
Wood clamps
Corner clamps
Short Kreg drill bit
Stubby screw drivers

Stats:

Trips to lumber yard -4
Trips to hardware stores -10+
Coats of polyurethane – 5 on the top, 3 everywhere else
Stain samples made before deciding on one – 11
Time involved – 6 weekends, 70-80 hours total
Number of electronics in the cabinet – 11
Number of screw-ups – 3
Number of arguments – 2
Total pieces of wood – 119
Screws – about 300
Injuries – 0!
Swear words – more than I’m proud of

Difficulty Level (on a scale of 1-5):

five out of five

Total Cost: $280

Author: Kristen

Kristen & her husband El Granto & their Vizsla Odin live in a converted Storefront in downtown Toronto.

12 thoughts on “Printmakers Media Cabinet – The Reveal”

  1. I ordered the regular printmakers sideboard from resto and was disappointed when it showed up made from cheap wood that was splintering and dry as fire wood… The piece is not what I would call “quality craftsmanship” by any means.

    Love yours! I have 2 questions – how can you ship it to Boston? (Remember the Bruins allowed you to continue on this year! That should count for something!)
    And – is yours smaller in size the Resto’s? The photo looks it… May just be the image though – it would be great to have the middle section be larger for photographers – we could store prints in the top drawer… Even better to cut and line the drawers with felt (to protect the images – but I’m talking crazy now right?)

    So back to my first question how are you going to get this to me in Boston? Love it!

    1. Oh so the Bruins allowed us eh?! Tell that to P. K. Subban 😉

      It is smaller that the RH one, we have a very tiny house, and needed something a lot more to scale. You could absolutely build the bigger model, or just make the center drawer print storage size, with acid free felt of course.

      The shipping from Canada to Boston would cost you a pretty penny. Perhaps you could send over a goalie in trade, I hear the Habs are now in need of one.

  2. I showed this to my husband at midnight one day and was like So, you bought a mitre saw, let’s get on this. And I think his answer eluded me to thinking that I just may have to buy one from you down the line.

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