DIY built-in storage

Due to it being over the stairs, I have no option but to build in a bed in our box room for eldest child.

I think the most useful type of storage will be drawers (which I’ve never made before).

Due to the requirement for drawers to be totally square, am I better off building the drawers almost separately from the frame and then scribing the borders, or can I get away with doing it all in-situ?
(the walls are a fair bit out of square).

This drawing shows the rough layout. I was going to have 2 sets of 3 drawers and then one triangular cupboard.

Plan was to face everything with 15mm birch ply so that it’s all completely flush.

So options
a) Build almost like kitchen cabinets and slot each unit in and frame it to wonky walls.
b) Build it like in the pic above. If I do this, where do I make the adjustments for square – wedges behind the wall batons? Don’t really know.

Does it need to be drawers? You could do it with shelves and baskets / storage boxes that just slide in. A lot simpler for the same storage result.

That’s been poo-pooed so far by son and wife, unless I admit defeat with the drawers. But so far I’m thinking that I can do it all with pocket hole joints and a router.

Thankfully I have a timber merchant who has a wall saw and cuts all my ply to within 0.5mm so I end up with a kit of parts.

How are you going to open a draw that us as deep as the bed. Looks like there isn’t that much room.

The depth of bed is 940mm. The space before wardrobe (end of the floor/wall shown) is 840mm. Drawer runners seem to be tricky/expensive to get hold of beyond 700mm, so I was going to work out what depth between 700mm and 840mm would work (i.e. when access to the back of the drawer becomes annoying)

Thinking around 740mm drawer depth at the moment.

I’ve done this wall-to-wall in my back bedroom – build the carcass to make sure you get everything plumb and true, particularly the liner panels at each end. Edwardian house – nothing level or flat. I’ve also used drawer sides with built-in runners (Screwfix) in my workshop – very robust

To make things simple buy draw kits . then you just have to front the draws and mount the rails in your frame.

I’d buy Ikea kitchen units (modifying the one over the stairs) and live with losing a bit at the back. It would make it a very easy job.

We did consider ikea – they do a 600mm cube kitchen unit[/url] which would fit 3 across with 300mm spare space on the left.
Roughly £250 with some framing to do around the edges assuming that I could find a strong enough way to mount the bed slats on top of them.

We rejected it based on the fact that our house is tiny and every bit of storage need to be maximised, but it seems a lot of people on this thread are agreeing that shortcuts are welcome 🙂

TheBrick – Member

To make things simple buy draw kits . then you just have to front the draws and mount the rails in your frame. I just haven’t found any deep drawer kits – 450mm is common, with ikea being a bit better at 520mm

Look for industrial runners, they do exist in the sizes you need though as you say they may not be cheap. I was looking at them some time ago for a similar project. Can’t remember where I was looking at them though, bigdug may be a start?

I’ve found 700mm runners with a 30kg load on ebay for £6.50, so they’ll probably do (hafele are £23!).
Some that I trust a little more are £12 – still doable.

http://www.hafele.co.uk/shop/p/accuride-9301-extra-heavy-duty-runner-full-extension-corrosion-resistant-finish/96199/8630

Aren’t they £100 a drawer!?

what about server racks?

im sure you could find some cheap cos they are just big runners?

or what about some boxes with low profile casters? If you had an upholstered lid you could use it as a stool/seat

+1 Boxes on wheels to fit under the bedframe. Smaller lift-out box(es) inside on fixed rails to give shallow storage on top of bulky / less-used items. Option on several narrow but full-depth boxes, or fewer wider boxes

So far everyone is coming up with shortcuts!
Any tips on how to get the frame square in situ rather than build/use separate units?

cant you just build the structure elsewhere (and square) and then insert it into the space – do you care about the non-squareness of the walls? you could just fix to the walls afterwards – if your structure is strong enough, the fixation to the walls is just to stop it moving surely?

Maybe – It would have to dismantle to get through the door (only 660mm wide). Perhaps doable.
Currently, I’m thinking of…
– Ignoring the back wall (as the drawers wont interact with it).
– Getting the front surface vertical.
– Getting the top front edge horizontal.
– Then putting in the 4 ‘sides’ vertical and square to the front.

What can go wrong wrong?

i’d perso do it as a kit that i can build elsewhere, take up to the room and then do the final fixing/build in situ.. depends on the joints you’re using etc..? screws or no screws?

Screw to batons, then pocket holes wherever useful I guess.

Did a very similar thing a couple of years back, I used mdf with timber framing, all painted with a roller for a consistent finish. It’s holding up well so far.

I made all the drawer boxes from scratch. The 2 drawer units are only 2/3 of the depth of the bed, but are on castors so you can pull them out, and then access the space behind (which we use for rarely needed stuff like winter duvet etc).

Early pic:

Later pic:

Finished article:

cant you just build the structure elsewhere (and square) and then insert it into the space

This if how the cabinet maker did all the bespoke stuff in our house. Built the units slightly undersize off site and then scribed the trim to fit the non straight walls in situ.

nre – that looks pretty similar to what I’m intending – any chance of fixing those in-progress links?

Hmm, yes will try and fix that… bear with me…

Twas a permissions thing, 2nd attempt:

Cheers!

If you want any more info / pics just drop me an email 🙂

i’d do it like that! looks top