We decided next to work on the cabinet that will be at the head of our bed in the main loft. Having this in place would help prevent us from bumping the log lights. And, it would be another element that was a final finished product!
We first wanted to put trim along the seam of where the walls meet the lofts that will be in the interior of the cabinet. This was much easier to do prior to installing the cabinet than after installation when working on anything within the interior of the cabinet would be much harder. So, a little more trim work! Luckily we had planned for this when installing our ceiling trim, so had pieces already prepped and ready. Same as the ceiling trim, we cut the angled ends (easier this time with clean 45-degree angles!) and used pin nails to attach them.
Then it was back to sanding, painting, and finishing the boards that would be the front and top of the cabinets. For the boards that will make up the front of the cabinet, we again used leftover boards from our wall tongue-and-groove board stash and white-washed them to match the walls. For the top of the cabinets, we purchased some really nice pine 1×10’s that we cut to our exact dimentions. All edges that would be exposed got a bit of a round-over with the router so they’d have a nice smooth look and feel.
Eli had made plans on how to construct the cabinets, making sure the cabinets would be sturdy and all boards had good support and tie-togethers. We glued and nailed a small board along the length of the bottom front board which would allow us to nail that board to the loft floor. We also had to provide support and attachment points to hold the three front tongue-and-groove boards together. We used small scrap pieces for this that we cleaned up and finished.
Then, it was into the tiny house for test fitting. We tested to make sure the three front boards would fit and everything was aligning correctly. Then, we laid them all out on the floor and glued and nailed the tongue-and-groove boards together and to their supports. It was nerve-wracking nailing the supports on because we didn’t want the nails to poke through the front of the face boards. But, all went well, and the front faces of the boards remained clean! Once all the glue was dry, we’d install the assembled piece.
Installation went smoothly with everything fitting together nicely after our dry fit tests. No installation pics because we both needed all our hands and attention to make sure the piece was installed tightly and straight.
The support strips on the back of the front boards will also serve the purpose of supporting the backer strips that will hold the top pieces of the cabinet. We’ll have two cabinet doors, one for each of us to access half of the cabinet for our personal storage, so we’ll have three fixed pieces on the cabinet top surrounding the doors. We need wood pieces to which we can nail the fixed top pieces, as well as a backer strip that runs the length of the back wall. The back strip along the wall will also be where the hinges for the doors will be affixed.
Once we had all the support/backer boards attached, we also added the last two bits of trim on the interior of the cabinets in the two corners where the walls meet.
All that was left was to install the top pieces and doors. We glued the fixed top boards to the backer support boards and nailed up from the bottom so the nails would be hidden. Nailing up from the bottom was no easy feat; it was a tight squeeze in that cabinet for the nail gun. It was also nerve-wracking because we couldn’t really see well in there, so it was difficult to tell if we were aiming the nail gun correctly. If aimed poorly, the nail could end up too close to the edge of the support board, which could cause the board to split, or we could hit the support board well, but be too far over and miss the top board. Or, our aim could be angled, which could cause the end of the nail to come out the side of the support board. There was only one mishap, where we had the nail gun over too far so the nail went through the backer board, but just to the side of the top board. It also chipped off a small piece of the backer board, but luckily nothing but an aesthetic mishap. We just put in another nail (this time with no error), snipped the blundered nail off, and glued the tiny piece that got chipped off back on again.
Then, it was on to the doors. We picked hinges that attach to the inside of the cabinet doors so we would have a nice smooth, clean surface on top when the doors are closed. Installing the hinges required drilling holes for the hinges in the bottom of the door boards, then screwing the hinge to the backer strip on the wall. The hinges were adjustable, so we can tweak them once the doors and hinges are in place.
And, with that, we have some bed headboard cabinets! These will be a nice little bit of storage in the loft. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out.
And, one more sweet aspect of these cabinets, the hinges we bought are “soft-close”—no accidental slamming of cabinet doors if we were in a hurry.
Photos of the finished product, and a video of the soft-close hinges!:
That is beautiful!!
Thank you!!!