Rebuilding a Home Office and Computing Area - Pt. 4 +update

[AlanLichty]

Prepping the room was a lengthy task since I was trying to disassemble 19 years worth of junk accumulation. I elected to repaint the walls and ceiling since this hadn't been done since I built the old system in 2000. Cathedral ceilings are neat to look at but a royal pain to paint. In this case the wall behind the computer desk is 14' tall so this is extension ladder territory. The room was originally supposed to be a dining room but we had no use for that and it has always been my office space. The chandelier speaks volumes about the mismatch

This is what the room looked like last weekend just before moving day:

Starting the installation:

Assembly complete:

What it looks like today while scribbling this thread:

The top cupboards will all have cabinet doors that I just got all the raw wood for Wednesday and I do still have to build the storage system that will be on the right of this structure but I now have a much more comfortable desk to sit at while editing images and posting. I might take a bit of a break from making sawdust after completing this part - it has eaten most of my spare time since I started in late November and finished just last weekend.

Thanks for following along. I will add to this series when I get the other storage cabinet built and populated with all my camera gear in one place.

 

[Bill Swartzwelder]

Nice change of space. You have so much more storage now.... Judging by your library you know your way around a command prompt.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice change of space. You have so much more storage now.... Judging by your library you know your way around a command prompt.

The next phase will be where real storage comes to pass. I have many piles of "stuff" that got displaced while this project was in progress that still need to migrate back into the room. I have 6 shelves for the upper cabinets getting finished and am about to make up the cabinet doors for the upper cabinets.

Design thoughts - This system has basically 3 24" vertical columns of supported storage spaces and one wider one on the left. I could maybe leave the center of the 3 24" columns as open shelves with the exposed drawers, integrated amp and the phone and then maybe do double cabinet doors on each of the two flanking columns. I would have to make twice as many doors but it might look nice. Thoughts?

 

[Bill Swartzwelder]

Either way could work aesthetically, Careful planning and choice of the door material... Where the knots and darker grain are located can aid in giving 3 columns a warmer feel. If using hardwood instead of plywood, re-sawing to create book matched doors panels is a nice way to break up the monotony of the boxy feeling, rows of rectangles would create.

 

[AlanLichty]

Thanks for the feedback. The one tool I don't have and don't have room for is a band saw that would let me do re-sawing I am going to break up the monotony by using solid western maple for the rails and stiles with 1/4" maple insets. Keeping the insets smaller with the double doors might help.

 

[AlanLichty]

Listening to @Bill Swartzwelder might turn out to be an expensive exercise for this project. I am just about to pull the trigger on a bandsaw that will let me resaw up to 13" so I can cut my own insert panels from some nicer wood. There are just so many more directions I can go with a design if I can choose the wood/grain for the inserts vs. putting up with whatever the plywood mills churned out.

 

[Bill Swartzwelder]

Ha... I have had a few guys cost me a bunch by recommending Camera gear.... so I know how you feel.

 

[JimFox]

It's very cool to see this up to this point Alan. It's a really great looking set up. You have 2 nice size speakers, what do you use them for?

And yeah, it sounds like Bill has caused you to spend some more money!

 

[AlanLichty]

It's very cool to see this up to this point Alan. It's a really great looking set up. You have 2 nice size speakers, what do you use them for?

And yeah, it sounds like Bill has caused you to spend some more money!

I am fairly serious about my audio - the speakers are B&W LM-1s connected to a Rotel integrated amp that is sitting just above the drawers and my chair is obscuring a Martin Logan powered subwoofer that is sitting in the corner under the desktop. The audio can either be playing from my computer or I can switch it over to source from the primary house audio system.

Happily for me I can get a very nice bandsaw for considerably less money than a good camera body or any of my lenses.

 

[AlanLichty]

Been a few weeks but I took a bit of a detour to buy a new bandsaw and learn how to use it to resaw boards and make book-matched panels as @Bill Swartzwelder suggested.

Bandsaw - I made sure I got one I could use for years to come without regretting buying a bench top toy:

This lets me take a board up to 13" tall and split it vertically to make panels that can be glued together to show mirrored grain patterns (book-matching). The partially milled western maple that will become the rails and stiles for the cabinet doors are lined up on the table just behind my table saw.

I used eastern maple heartwood for the book-matched insert panels and the door frames are western maple (AKA bigleaf maple):

Most maple furniture is made from the white sapwood so maple heartwood with the darker grain patterns is actually cheap compared to the typical white wood. I happen to like the complete lack of uniformity and seek out the more dramatic wood grain.

 

[Bill Swartzwelder]

Very nice, I am glad you were able to make some space in your shop for that. i have a grizzly G0555X that I don't use often, but is great for special projects. Your Cabinet doors look fantastic!

 

[AlanLichty]

Very nice, I am glad you were able to make some space in your shop for that. i have a grizzly G0555X that I don't use often, but is great for special projects. Your Cabinet doors look fantastic!

Thanks - When I looked at the footprint of a bandsaw I was surprised at how small it really is compared to my table saw so I made sure it had a mobility base to allow me to shuffle things around to use it. My table saw does have a very nice mobility base so it moves around easily in spite of being over 500lbs with it's built in router table and outfield table. Glad I bought the saw - I have plans for how I can expand my sawdust manufacturing habit with it

You can never have too many tools for making wood shorter........