Thread: Home Office Fit Out WIP - Noobie :D

G'day All

This is the first time I'm tackling such a project and would like your input on what you may have done differently or materials you may have opted for.

The brief was simple, wife wanted us to spend more time together in the same room.
As we are always working in different rooms on our computers.
So we decided on converting my man cave to a home office that we can both share
We settled on some Shaker style cabinetry, floating shelves and taller baseboards

Progress pics below.

I used 18mm B grade ply for the carcass and trimmed it out with 19mm pine.
Holes were filled using plaster type filler instead of wood filler. (Anyone care to elaborate what the pros and cons are between the two?)
Cos the plaster filler says it can be used on timber...since I had it laying around, I decided to use it.

This was sanded down to 180 grit and sprayed
I didn't opt for a toe kick, not sure if I should have or not.

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Cabinets all done and put into place.
Had to add some extensions to the side of the cabinets to allow room for Ethernet / Electric plugs
Holes here drilled near the top side of the cabinets to allow for cable runs.
Bought some Ikea cable management trays to keep all the cables at bay.
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Floating Shelves
I made a ladder type frame out of 70x35 MGP and screwed it into studs on the wall.
The shelf or sleeve was made out of half inch B grade ply with a 19mm Pine face.
You can see where I had my guitars hanging previously in the first pic :P
I originally wanted to hang some strip or down lights under the shelves but didn't want and wires dropping down from the sides.
Wish I had a sparky friend.. lol

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I got my hands on some 120x35mm mountain ash for the benchtops
I don't have a jointer, table saw or hand plane. The boards looked pretty straight and figured if there was any bow, the clamps would pull it straight during glue up.
Boards were then glued and laminated with 14mm dominos every 6 to 8 inches.
This was then sanded down to 180 grit and grain filled for a smooth finish, lightly sanded between coats of poly and wet dry sanding towards the end.
Results after 7 coats of poly.
I read oil base poly tend to yellow the timber over time....I guess we'll see. For now I'm happy with the finish.

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Benchtops installed
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Purchased some soft close drawer slides. These are a pain in the butt as you need to be exact on the drawer widths for it to slide in and out easily.
I measured sides of the cabinets and they were parallel.
Anyone know the trick to the trade on constructing drawers that fit these slides perfectly? (what allowance do you normally allow on the widths?)
I've decided to put the drawer construction on the back burner until the new table saw arrives :P

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I moved onto the base board and what a pain that is trying to pull up base boards. lol
I bought one of these from Bunnies and it did more damage to the plaster then what its worth.
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After doing some googling I found this tool. Has a wider surface area and doesn't damage the plaster when prying .
Has a lip on the inner face, so as you hammer down on the baseboard it pulls it away from the plaster.

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The original base boards were 67mm I think, and they sit a good 20mm below the carpet/tile. So only 47mm was exposed.
Should base boards be installed on top of carpet / tiles....or should it be installed down to the concrete slab?
I notice my builder opted for the second option and subsequently the carpet and tiles were butt up against the base boards and any gaps were filled with filler... :/

I opted for 140mm baseboards as wife likes the look better...it also means I gotta spend the rest of the house with the same trim. (this im dreading lol)

So as it stands, it looks like this..... more progress pics to come... :P Ordered a Table Saw, anxiously waiting for it's arrival

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