Built three barn-wood faced cabinets – 6′ high x 4′ wide x 16″ deep, last week. I made the cases from 3/4″ maple ply, 1/4″ virola back. All plywood assembled thru outside of case with 2″ screws – no dados. Back is nailed on with 3p box nails. Outer faces of cabinet are filled, sanded, and painted dark green.
Next, nominal 1/2″ x 5′ salvaged yellow pine clapboards were firmly brushed with a brass “suede” shoe brush, vacuumed, and pinned on to the case and door slabs with 1″ 16 gage gun nails. After all was fitted, I applied two coats wb poly. The hinges are full inset Blum for a thick door – 1-1/4″ total thickness. The shelf support “dowels” are actually 3/4″ cpvc with the lettering sanded off – fits perfectly in a 1/4″ deep 7/8″ diameter Forstener hole.
Case construction
Door pieces – layout
Door pieces – trimmed. Left is rough, right is brushed and vacuumed
Polyurethaned
Installed cabinet #1
I had a good time with these. I had purchased the plywood some time ago, and wasn’t sure how the barn veneer would work. The dark green paint beneath makes any gaps disappear. I’m really pleased!
Replies
Very cool. Can you post a higher-resolution photo of the finished cabinet? 100K jpeg or thereabouts? I'm on dial-up, but want to get a better look.
Thanks!
Allen
Here are two a little bigger. Thanks for the interest! And on dial-up, too - I'm honored.
Forrest
Looks great. Any plans to build similar pieces?
Allen
Yes - my wife wants a corner coffee-server cabinet in the kitchen with "carpenter gothic" cutouts and tracery. Probably a slate tile counter. I've found another source with much older and more weathered boards. Another client wants a stereo cabinet.
Since I made three of the first set, I experimented with ways to make the old boards lie flat, particularly on the doors - inset doors have to swing "into" the cabinet at the hinge side, and I only had the 1-1/4" total thickness available to clear.
First I just clamped them down, but sometimes the nails would pull through. Then I noted tht all the boards were cupped to the weather, and I just polyed that side, so the water base would "grow" the face and flatten them out - that worked, but inconsistantly.
Finally, I just kerfed the back sides about 5/16" deep, 1-1/2" in from each edge, and then polyed before assembly, and just flattened the areas as I nailed them - that worked best.
Forrest