Furniture Archives | Gray House Studio

How to Build a Rocking Chair Base

Stylish upholstered rocking chairs can be expensive so for our son’s nursery we purchased an accent chair, removed the legs, and built a rocking chair base. In this DIY rocking chair base build tutorial, we will show you how we built a custom rocking base for the chair.

The rocking chair is a staple piece of furniture in a nursery. It has to be comfortable, functional but let’s face it, it has to look good too. Oh and if you are in rowing in the same boat as us, it has to be affordable. We put a lot of effort in the design of our nursery to blow it on a mismatched rocking chair or blow our whole budget on one we couldn’t really afford. We shopped around. We even went so far as to try out rocking chairs at Pottery Barn Kids. When the nice sales lady asked if we were interested, we played along knowing good and well we couldn’t drop over $1,000 on a chair. If we had the money, I would have taken the one I liked home in a heartbeat. But we don’t so we had to improvise. I feel our DIY projects that turn out the best are ones where the price of a piece of furniture we like is way up here (picture my hand way above my head) and our budget is way down here (picture my other hand below my knees). It forces us to think of a solution that is a good compromise between style and price. That is what we did for our rocking chair base build and I think it was a home run. We were able to take the exact style accent chair we liked (that was in our price range) and turn it into a rocking chair by building a custom rocking chair base. Watch the video tutorial or follow along with the steps below to see our rocking chair base build tutorial.

How to Turn an Upholstered Chair into a Rocking Chair

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STEPS

1. To start the rocking chair base build, we first tested the rocker radius on our upholstered chair by cutting a 38 inch radius from two scrap sheets of masonite and screwing the masonite rockers into the stock legs. We did quite a bit of research and used the formula below to determine the radius. Seat Height(12″) x Pi(3.14) = Rocker Radius (38″) After sitting in chair with the test rocking chair piece, we decided the seat height was a bit too high but the rocking motion was perfect. Our solution was to shorten the legs on the new rocking chair base.

Building the Chair Base 2. The new legs for the rocking chair were cut from 2″x2″ pine boards with a miter saw. We matched the angle of the legs and shortened each leg by 2″. The chair apron is made from 1″x3″ pine boards. The original legs screwed directly into the base of the chair but we attached the legs together using an apron design. This makes for a stronger base. Plus, we like the aesthetic.

3. We used a Kreg Jig to drill pocket holes. Then We connected the four 1″x3″ apron boards to each leg with two 1-1/4″ pocket hole screws and wood glue.

4. Pocket holes were drilled in the top of the left and right apron boards to allow the base to be attached to the underside of the chair.

5. Before moving on to the rocker rails, we test fit the rocking chair base with the upholstered chair and it fit great!

Making the Rocker Runner Template 6. To trace the rocker runner radius we build a giant compass. Using a scrap piece of aluminum we drilled one hole to anchor one end of the compass and drilled two holes to draw through with a pencil. One hole was drilled at 36″ (top of runner) and 38″ (bottom of runner).

7. To measure where the ends of the rocker runners are, we used the chair base and traced around each leg to indicate where to cut the template to make the ends of each runner flush with the legs.

The rocker runner template fit perfectly!

Cutting the Rocker Runners 8. We used select pine 1″x6″ boards for the rocker runners but needed to combine two boards together using wood glue and clamps to match width of the 2″x2″.

9. Once the shape of the rocker runner template is traced on the double thick 1″x6″ board we used a jigsaw to cut out each runner.

10. The runners were attached to the rocking chair base with wood glue and 2″ pocket hole screws after using our drill to drill holes to countersink the screw heads.

11. To finish up the base we coated it in a polycrylic protective finish to preserve the light tone of the pine.

12. Once the clear coat on the base was dry, we attached it to the upholstered chair using 2″ pocket hole screws, making sure they anchored into the wood substructure.

After rocking Connor for three months in this rocking chair, I can confirm that it is super comfortable. The fact that it does not have arms actually makes it more comfortable in my opinion to hold him and feed him because I can lay him on his pillow and it has more room across my lap. In case you were wondering about the sturdiness, I tested it out by rocking Brent on my lap and while my legs felt like they were going to break, the rocking chair did not. It feels safe and secure. It also gives off a smooth rocking motion. We have it on our laminate floor so we added felt strips to the bottom to keep it from scraping and moving too much. Several people have asked where we purchased our rocking chair which makes us feel good that our accent chair to rocking chair transformation turned out just like we had in mind.

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A how-to home woodworking tutorial showing how to turn an upholstered chair into a rocking chair like we did for our son's nursery rocker. Building a rocking chair base is not as hard as you may think! A video tutorial is included.

Baby Changing Table

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

Brent built a baby changing table that has a printmaker cabinet aesthetic but with a modern design to match the crib in the nursery. Behind the doors with faux drawers, we are hiding all the necessary changing table supplies including a diaper pail.

We have somewhere around three weeks (or sooner…eek!) until our little Gray House intern makes his arrival and we have been scrambling to get his nursery ready.

Back in July we thought we had ALL the time in the world to get projects finished but when you are trying to DIY 90% of the nursery and only have the weekends to work on it, time runs out REALLY fast.

We had to start prioritizing our DIY nursery projects and the first and most important project on the list was to build a baby changing table since it is an essential part of the nursery.

When it comes to designing furniture for our home we like to create pieces that fit the aesthetic of the room but are functional as well. For the changing table / cabinet we spent a lot of time focusing on the design.

We really wanted it to match the Hudson crib from Babyletto that my parents gave us so all the large pieces in the nursery would have a cohesive look and feel.

But we also needed it to have plenty of storage space to hide the items we didn’t want sitting out in the open.

We designed the baby changing table to look like a modern printmakers cabinet with the large amount of drawers but they are actually all fake! In reality there are two doors.

Behind the wider door is a shelf with large baskets where we are storing extra diapers, nursing supplies, lotions, burp cloths, etc.

Behind the narrow door is a diaper pail. What is great about custom made pieces is you can build them the exact dimensions to fit the items you need to store, such as a diaper pail. Because really, who wants an unattractive diaper pail out in the open?

The only hiccup can be if you get the measurements for a diaper pail online instead of buying it first and on the website instead of giving the dimensions of the product, they give you the dimensions of the box the product comes (not assembled) in.

But you don’t realize that so you build the entire cabinet around the dimensions of the box the diaper pail comes in only to realize when you go to buy it that it is taller than the website said and therefore will not fit in the custom spot that you built for it.

Luckily, we were able to find a different diaper pail that fit perfectly and will work just fine. That was a close one! Ah! Lesson learned, buy the diaper pail first.

How to Build a Baby Changing Table

SUPPLIES

1″x2″ Select Pine Boards
Plywood
Masonite
Miter saw
Table saw
Wood Glue
Drill
Kreg Jig
Nail gun
1 ½ inch finishing nails
Router
Sherwin-Williams ProClassic® Waterbased Paint in Dovetail
Metallic Dark Steel Spray Paint
Label Drawer Pulls

FYI: This post contains affiliate links to products we used and liked for our baby changing table. As an Amazon Associate Gray House Studio earns from qualifying purchases. This is at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy.

TUTORIAL VIDEO

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STEPS

1. To start the baby changing table Brent cut the 1″x2″ select pine boards on the miter saw and cut multiple boards at the same time if they needed to be the same length.

He used the table saw to cut the boards to the correct width.

2. Then he cut all the plywood for the project down to size on the table saw.

3. To inset the two side panels made of plywood into the top and bottom rails, he cut a slot in each of the rails the same thickness as the plywood side and 1 inch from the bottom of the rail.

4. To start assembling the baby changing table Brent glued the slotted rails to the plywood sides with wood glue and used clamps to hold the boards together until everything dried.

He used a measuring tape to straighten the rails to the plywood to make sure it was square before he tightened the clamps down.

5. While the two sides dried, he drilled pocket hole screws in the boards using a drill and Kreg Jig that would go together to make up the front and back frames of the baby changing table.

6. Then he glued and screwed the pieces for the front and back frames together.

7. Once the sides and base were put together, he used a nail gun, 1 ½ inch finishing nails and wood glue to assemble the shell of the baby changing table.

8. Since we wanted the legs of the changing table to match our crib, Brent made a paper template of the crib legs and traced the legs onto the boards that would be the legs of the changing table.

Once those pieces were traced, he used a miter saw to cut the angle at the top of the legs so that the legs would mount to the changing table at the same angle.

Since the boards we were using were only ¾ inch thick, and we wanted the legs to be an inch and a half thick, he glued two boards together per leg.

Then he used a router to round off the bottom edges of the legs and then used a sander to prep the legs for paint.

9. Once sanded and ready for paint, Brent attached the legs to the bottom of the changing table with finishing nails.

10. Next, Brent attached the back piece of masonite and the bottom piece of plywood on the inside of the changing table,

11. To support the weight of the top of the cabinet, he attached little blocks of wood inside the changing table.

12. Then, Brent used finishing nails and wood glue to attach the top to the baby changing table.

13. The divider that separates the space between the changing pad and the area to store other items was nailed and glued to the top board.

14. After the main part of the cabinet was assembled, he moved on to the doors and started by cutting each of the slats that would serve as fake drawers on the face of the doors.

By taping all the boards together it was easier to cut all the pieces at once on the miter saw and make sure they were all the exact same length.

15. After all the fake drawer pieces were cut, he glued and clamped the slats to the piece of plywood that was cut to the right size for the door. He did this for both the wide door and the narrow door.

16. Finally, with the baby changing table built, it was time to paint the entire cabinet. We used ProClassic® interior waterbased paint from Sherwin-Williams that was leftover from when we built our office cabinets. The color (Dovetail) matched very closely to our gray crib.

We went back and forth on what color to make the knobs but finally decided to paint them a dark metal color using Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Dark Steel spray paint.

We also painted the label drawer pulls the same color to match the knobs and sticking with our outdoor theme and just to make it more fun, we labeled the faux drawers with rock climbing and camping gear supplies.

Being pregnant in the 100 degree Houston weather is no fun, I’m just saying. However, Brent argues that building furniture in a 100+ degree garage is no fun either which I can definitely understand because I have been avoiding being in the garage or outside as much as possible this summer (unless I am submerged in a pool).

This has left poor Brent working on building the majority of the nursery projects by himself in the heat.

I really do appreciate his dedication to making our son’s room awesome (this is seriously my favorite room in our home now) and bringing our vision for an outdoor modern nursery to life. He is awesome like that.

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Two-Level Desk DIY

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

Check out to build a wood two-level desk for your home office. This is s great solution if you need a large workspace for multiple monitors. There are woodworking plans available project.

We are finally finished with our home office and are wrapping up our home office posts by sharing one more DIY furniture project and the focal point of the room, our two-level desk. This desk design is great if you need a desk with a lot of workspace and one that floats in the middle of the room because it includes a front panel for cord management.

I liked that the top level would hide most of what I had on my desk on the lower level. So we snapped a picture for inspiration and Brent drew up some plans of a modified version to use to build our desk.

How To Build a Two-Level Wood Desk

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PROJECT PLANS

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When you purchase our DIY wood two-level desk plans you get a 10 page PDF with a detailed materials list, a cut list, exact dimensions for each piece, building instructions – we appreciate you supporting Gray House Studio!

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STEP BY STEP GUIDE

1. To make the four 2″x12″s easier to work with and transport, we had the boards cut down at the home improvement store first.

We had them cut so there was a little extra room on each side from our desk measurements since more than likely the panel saw they use wouldn’t cut the boards exactly square.

We had to make the precise cuts on our miter saw back at home but because the boards are 2”x12”s and our miter saw only cuts about eight inches, we had to cut one half of the board and then flip the board over and cut the other half.

We used a framing square to mark the cut so we could make sure the cut on the miter saw was straight and square.

2. Each side of the desk is made up of three boards that we connected together with pocket hole screws. We used our Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and https://amzn.to/2Hg0SNh”>drill to drill pocket hole screws in the top of the legs to attach the top boards to the sides in a later step.

3. Before screwing the boards together, we used clamps to hold the boards to our workspace to make sure they stayed flush and didn’t move around. We connected the boards using pocket hole screws and wood glue.

4. After both sides (legs) were assembled, we stood them up and attached clamps to the base to prevent them from falling over.

Then we started attaching the top of the desk with pocket hole screws using the pocket hole jig and wood glue.

The top of the lower part of the desk is made up of multiple 2”x12”s so before we attached them to the side of the desk we needed to attach the boards together with pocket hole screws and wood glue like we did with the sides of the desk.

5. We used pocket holes screws to attach the top level of the desk to the sides.

6. Next, we needed to add a back panel on the top of the desk for the plywood panel front to attach to that sits between the two taller side pieces.

We had to cut the 2”x12” down using the table saw to fit in that slot.

To make the board easier to screw in, we attached a small block of wood on the inside of each of the sides of the desk at the same level as the lower leg brace.

We used a framing square and a straight edge to make the mark to make sure the block was perfectly aligned.

Then we glued and nailed the blocks in place so we could set the 2″x12” on them to attach it to the desk.

7. We attached our back panel board using wood glue and pocket hole screwed it into the existing top of the desk and the side braces.

8. To give us something to attach the front panel piece to at the bottom of the desk we added a 2”x4” to the bottom of the desk that we pocket hole screwed into both sides of the legs.

9. To give the front panel something to attach to in the middle we added a 2″x4″ even with the 2″x12″ installed previously and under the top level of the desk.

These boards allowed us to nail our large sheet of plywood into the top, middle and bottom of the desk, making sure it was nice and secure.

10. Next, we cut our plywood piece down to the size we needed (40-1/2” x 61“) on the table saw.

11. We didn’t install the front panel just yet, but did do a test fit to make sure it fit perfectly in the inset of the desk before taking the desk inside the house.

12. Because the lower level of the desk is made of multiple boards, we needed to create a smooth surface.

To do this we filled in all the joints between the boards with wood filler and then after it dried went over the entire top of the desk with an orbital sander to give it a consistent and even surface.

Before bringing it in the house, I stained the entire surface of the desk with our favorite stain while Brent painted the front panel of the desk gray (SW Dovetail) to match our home office cabinets we built.

13. Next, we brought the desk in the house to do the final few steps.

Thankfully, Brent’s dad was in town visiting during this part because the desk is pretty heavy duty and there was no way I was going to be able to even lift it let alone carry it from the garage to the front of the house.

The final step before we permanently attached the front plywood panel was to cut a hole in the the back of the top of the lower level of the desk for our computer cords to run through.

We did this by drilling two holes in the desk and cutting sections of the wood away using a jigsaw.

The two holes allowed the jigsaw to rotate at the corners of the cut. We also attached a thin piece of wood by use clamps to attach it to the top and bottom of the lower level of the desk to prevent the wood from splintering during the cut.

Since the jigsaw can make a bit of a mess, while Brent was making the cut, I followed close behind with a shop vacuum to minimize the mess.

14. To hide the cords running from the desk to the outlet, we cut a small hole in the rug under the desk and ran the cords under the rug making them completely invisible and out of the way when looking at the desk.

15. Finally, once all the cables and cords were run out from under the desk, we attached the front panel to the desk using a nail gun and finishing nails to hold it in place.

After the desk was complete, I added a few decor and organization pieces to finish off the industrial/rustic look we are going for in our home office.

Check out the post below on all the organization pieces I used in our home office.

We are really happy with the design of the desk and how well it works in this space. Jake the cat loves to lay on the top level of the desk while I work which I love because it keeps him off my keyboard.

We have plenty of surface space for both our computers and lots of room for me to spread out with all of my planners, binders and notebooks that I use on a daily basis. My two favorite aspects of this desk is obviously the cord management solution as well as it is tall enough to store a printer stand on casters underneath keeping the less attractive aspects of a home office out of sight.

Be sure to check out our home office makeover to see all of our home office projects and take a video tour!

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Build an Outdoor Sectional for under $100

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

Being the home owners on a budget that we are, we set out to build a knockoff version of a West Elm outdoor sectional. Ours was made for a fraction of the cost using cedar fence planks and we have building plans for you to make one too!

Continue Reading “Build an Outdoor Sectional for under $100”

Herringbone Countertop DIY

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

How to build a wood herringbone countertop for our office cabinets.

We are back with part two of our office cabinets project and today we are sharing how we made our herringbone countertop. After spending quite a bit of time on the base of the cabinets, we were looking for an affordable and relatively easy solution for the countertop. We wanted it to contrast the gray base but still be interesting so a wood herringbone countertop worked out perfectly.

We should mention that this wood countertop is more for decorative purposes. We wouldn’t recommend this type of countertop anywhere where food is involved or as a work surface that would get a lot of hard use but in an office it looks amazing and works great.

*** Thanks so much for supporting our small shop – Moon Rock Prints – this holiday season! ***

How to Build a Herringbone Countertop

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In this video I will show the steps as well as the materials and tools necessary to make a wood herringbone countertop like we did for our office cabinets.

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STEPS

To build our herringbone counter top we used 2×4 Premium Kiln-Dried Whitewood.

We chose to go with a herringbone pattern for our counter top but we needed a game plan to determine all of our measurements for the pieces before we started cutting.

In order to figure out the lengths of the boards we first needed to figure out the length of the 45 degree angle and then divide that by two which gave us the length of the center of each board.

One side of each board needed to be cut at a 90 degree angle and the other side needed to be cut at a 45 degree angle.

All the boards needed to be the same length so to get the distance we just took the depth of our counter top and determined the hypotenuse (there are calculators online to do that) and then we cut all the boards the same length with the miter saw.

We determined that the center of each board should be 13 ¾ inches so I took my measuring tape and marked that measurement on the center of the board. To double check that it is the center I measured the other way and made the mark.

I used the straightedge side of the board as my 90 degree angle. The 45 degree angle needed to intersect the center point I marked so I used a framing square and turned it until it showed 45 degrees and then slid it down the board until it met my mark.

Once it was on the mark I drew a line where I would cut the board on the miter saw.

1. Once my first board was lined up for the cut on the miter saw, I used a scrap piece of wood and a clamp to make a stop so that all the following cuts would match and be exactly the same.

In between each 45 degree angle cut, I needed to cut another 90 degree angle cut so that I could turn the board and put the 90 degree angle cut against the stop to make the exact same 45 degree angle cut.

To do this I put a spacer board between my board so the actual 2×4 sat flush against the straight guard.

Then I changed the blade back to 90 degrees and I made the cut and then flipped the board around and continued making the 45 degree angle cut.

2. After all the boards were cut, I started the process of attaching them together.

I used a drill press to drill a hole in the side of each of the boards to countersink the screws.

3. I screwed pairs of boards together and then once they were all glued and screwed together I took all the “v” shapes that were created and screwed them together the same way all the way down until the counter top was completely joined together.

Normally, I would just butt the edges together and use wood glue. I would let the wood glue set up in a clamp and it would hold fine.

However, because these are cheap 2x4s I used and they had a bunch of knots in them, each of the boards might expand at different rates and it could make the seams come apart. The screws will make sure to keep all the pieces held together tight.

4. I used a T-square to mark each side indicating on all the boards where to cut them for a straight edge.

5. Once both sides of the counter top were cut to length square with the miter saw, I flipped all the boards over, lined them up, put wood glue in each of the seam and used large clamps to hold them together.

6. Then I used a nail gun to drive finishing nails through the sides of the boards going from one board to the next on each side and then through the bottom going from one board to the next across the seams.

If the boards are bowed after being screwed together, you can straighten the bow by facing the highest point of the center up and then placing the clamp on the boards and tighten it until the boards straighten.

7. I left the clamps on for a day or two while the glue dried and then used an orbital sander on the top surface of the countertop to remove any high points.

8. Once the surface was flat, we stained the countertop being careful to get the stain in all the cracks. We used our favorite stain, Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Kona.

9. Finally, before installing the countertop I used our table saw to cut sections of wood pine molding down to size to frame the countertop.

When the wood pine molding were cut to the correct size, I turned the boards on their sides and cut the edges straight.

10. After staining the frame, we installed the sections of the countertop on our cabinet base and glued the frame to the edge of the countertop.

11. We used painters tape to hold it in place while the glue dried.

Check out our finished office cabinets or how to build a cabinet drawer.

After we installed the herringbone countertop, we secured the cabinets to the wall.

We are really happy with how our wood herringbone countertop turned out. It looks great on top of the gray cabinets. Our next DIY project will be building a desk with the same Kona stain and a gray front piece.

Our home office is coming together nicely and we can’t wait to share the final reveal.

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Building Office Cabinets

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

See how we built brand new office cabinets with a herringbone countertop for our home office makeover.

If you haven’t heard, we are expecting a baby in September! We are extremely excited about the new member of Gray House Studio and to begin all the fun nursery projects that are ahead of us. Speaking of the nursery, when we found out we were expecting one of the first things that popped into our head was, where are we going to put the nursery?

After some deliberating, we decided that as of now the best location for the nursery would be our extra room that is currently my office. That means my office is jumping across the hall to the front room next to our library. I am a little sad to leave this room but I am a glass half full kind of girl and am taking advantage of this move by convincing Brent to help me to create the office I always wanted in the new space.

Brent is is going above and beyond to help me transform this space, especially since I have been a little down for the count the past few months (so many naps). I literally fell asleep in a chair in the garage while he was working. Ha.

You can read all about our plans for the home office here.

Our first DIY project in our home office was to build office cabinets that spanned one entire wall of the room. Currently, if my office is a mess, I can just shut the door and visitors will never know it is there. But now that I will be working out of the front of our home, the office will be the first room guests see when they walk in our door and there are no doors to hide behind. I need all the help I can get to keep this new space nice and organized.

My dream was to have a wall of gray office cabinets in this space and the past month Brent has been working his butt off to make this a reality and the cabinets he built turned out AMAZING! From just a few sheets of plywood he made my organization dreams come true and he did it all for around $300.

This project was a big one and between me falling down on the photographing job (so many naps) and lots of late nights working to get the cabinets finished as fast as possible, we didn’t document as much as we intended so this isn’t as much a tutorial as a behind the scenes look at how these cabinets came together but we do have tutorials on how to build and install the drawers and how to create the herringbone countertop that you can check out.

*** Thanks so much for supporting our small shop – Moon Rock Prints – this holiday season! ***

Our office cabinets came together in eight phases:

1. Building the base/frame.
2. Building and installing the drawers
3. Building the drawer faces and the doors
4. Painting the drawer faces and doors.
5. Painting the base/frame
6. Attaching the drawer faces and installing the doors
7. Building and attaching the wood herringbone countertop
8. Attaching the hardware

1: BUILDING THE BASE OF OUR OFFICE CABINETS

^^^ For the base of our cabinets we used one sheet of 3/4″ plywood.

^^^ Brent used the table saw to cut the sheet of plywood into to four pieces. These pieces are the sides of our cabinets so he cut them to the height and depth the cabinets needed to be to fit the space.

^^^ He used a framing square to mark where the toe kick would be on the bottom front of each of the four boards.

^^^ Then using the table saw he cut this square piece out each of the the boards.

^^^ Next, Brent cut the horizontal braces that would connect the sides of our base together.

^^^ After he made all of the cuts, we had the pieces ready to start building the base.

^^^ For the top back horizontal brace, he used a nail gun to secure two boards together in an L shape to make a stronger brace to support the countertop and allow us to anchor the cabinets to the wall.

^^^ Brent used wood glue, a nail gun, and finishing nails to build the base. It came together rather quickly and after he finished one side he had to build the second side of the base. Then he added the shelves in the middle of each base. Check out a little behind the scenes video of how this part of the cabinet building process came together here.

^^^ Once both sides of the base were finished, we brought them into the room.

^^^ We attached the two pieces together with additional braces. The middle section would eventually become large drawers.

^^^ Next, Brent worked on creating the frame of the base. He use the miter saw to cut the pieces down to the correct length.

^^^ He used the table saw to cut the pieces down to the correct width.

^^^ To attach the frame to the base, he put wood glue on the back of the pieces and held them in place with painters tape while they dried.

^^^ Now that our base was built and our frame attached, we were ready to start building the drawers.

2: BUILDING & INSTALLING THE DRAWERS

We needed four doors and five drawers for our office cabinets. Brent was able to get his drawer building technique down to be as efficient and quick as possible which meant this part of the project went quickly. If you are interested in how we built and installed the drawers in our cabinets, check out our drawer building tutorial.

3: BUILDING THE DRAWER FACES AND DOORS

We used 1×2 select pine for our doors and drawer faces. To attach the rails and stiles together Brent used pocket hole screws. For the recessed piece in the center we used 1/2″ plywood that was glued to the backside of the frame.

4: PAINTING THE DRAWER FACES AND
DOORS

When it came time to paint the doors and drawer faces we went to my trusted paint guru, my dad, to help us pick out the right type of paint for our office cabinets. We used the ProClassic® interior waterbased paint from Sherwin-Williams.

I wanted the cabinets to be just slightly darker than the walls so we chose to go with Dovetail SW 7018 because it is on the same color swatch as our walls, Mindful Gray, just two shades darker and Dovetail is already on the walls in my current office so we knew we liked the color.

My dad has a spray gun and was kind enough to spray a few coats of paint on all of our of our doors and drawer faces for us. He even delivered them to our house when he was done. Thanks Dad! They turned out great!

5: PAINTING THE BASE

Next we took the same paint used on the doors and drawers and painted the base and frame of our cabinets. We put on one light coat on, let it dry, sanded it down, and then put a second coat on. We were just intending to paint the frame of the cabinets but then ended up painting the entire thing including the inside. I am glad we did because it makes it feel complete.

6: ATTACHING THE DRAWER FACES & INSTALLING THE DOORS

To attach the drawer faces to our drawers we used double sided tape to hold the piece to the drawer while we secured it with screws through the drawer from the back. We started with the three middle drawers then worked our way outwards.

We ran into a slight hiccup with our doors and the hinges we had purchased. They were too big and because our doors are so close together, when they would open they would rub against the drawers. We ended up using the smaller hinges from our IKEA bookshelf doors and they worked like a charm!

After all the doors and drawers faces were on, our base was finished!

7: BUILD WOOD HERRINGBONE COUNTERTOP

Then it was time to focus on the countertop for the cabinets. We kicked around several different ideas before deciding that since the countertop was more for decor purpose and wouldn’t get a lot of heavy use, it was a great time to try a herringbone pattern that we have been wanting to make. We plan on making the top of our coffee table in our library also with a herringbone pattern so it should all tie in nicely together.

I have to say, I am pretty impressed with how Brent made this herringbone countertop. I love the pattern and of course that is is stained in our favorite Kona colored stain. You can check out the full tutorial on making a DIY herringbone countertop here.

8: ATTACH HARDWARE

Finally, we added the hardware. I had my eye on these drawer pulls from Rejuvenation but at $55 a piece, we couldn’t afford them especially since we needed to buy nine of them so we took to Amazon and after lots of searching, wouldn’t you know we found some that were pretty dang similar for only $9.48 a piece. That was a happy day indeed.

OFFICE CABINET DETAILS

DRAWER PULLS: 5.7-Inch Drawer Pulls in black
PAINT: Sherwin-Williams ProClassic® Waterbased paint in Dovetail SW 7018
COUNTERTOP STAIN: Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Kona

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After the cabinets were finished, it took me about two days to move everything from my old office into my new cabinets and it felt so nice to purge things that were not needed and give the things I do need a place of their own to go back to. I have said it time and time again but I truly believe the key to organization is having specific places to put items back after use. Everything fit perfectly in the new cabinets and I even had a little extra space.

Check out how to build a herringbone countertop or how to build a cabinet drawer.

We are really happy with how our office cabinets turned out and are excited to continue working on our home office makeover. Our next project is build a brand new desk that will better fit in this space. I can’t wait!

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Building Office Cabinets

1: BUILDING THE BASE OF OUR OFFICE CABINETS

2: BUILDING & INSTALLING THE DRAWERS

3: BUILDING THE DRAWER FACES AND DOORS

4: PAINTING THE DRAWER FACES AND DOORS

5: PAINTING THE BASE

6: ATTACHING THE DRAWER FACES & INSTALLING THE DOORS

7: BUILD WOOD HERRINGBONE COUNTERTOP

8: ATTACH HARDWARE

4: PAINTING THE DRAWER FACES AND
DOORS