Thread: Help with a bloody big storage cupboard please

At 35mm, the shelves will be quite thick. Not a problem in and of itself, but it might look odd.

Would be great to see a rough up of the design you're looking to build, it would shed some light on the overall plan and what could work well for shelf support.

I'd definitely agree you need shelf support - if the overall length is 3600mm, then it would make sense to me to space the support at 900mm centres, or 600mm centres, as either of these will work in nicely measurement wise.

The decision between 600 or 900mm will come down to the weight on each shelf in between the supports. If it's purely sewing knick knacks and stuff, then 900mm with a decent shelf material should be fine.

If it's bolts and bolts of cloth stacked on top of each other, you'd lean toward 600mm supports.

Then again, I tent to overthink, overdesign, and overbuild - it'll be interesting to hear others thoughts on this too

What sort of budget does your friend have, I fitted these Ikea Wardrobes in the office and couldn't wish for anything better.
The only problem is they are 2.4mts high and not easily shortened so i had too remove the cornice and square set the corners behind the unit to vermin proof, if her ceiling is higher it would be a simple install.

If I had to make all that shelving and doors it would have taken ages and would probably still be half done, the expense for what we have in return is well worth it.

One possibility would be to make a set of four 900mmW, 450mmD melamine carcasses with melamine back panels, and join them together. You would loose a little shelf length with the intermediate side panels, but not as much as if you construction studs or similar for uprights at the ends and as supports.
You should be able to buy pre-edged melamine lengths at 450W at Bunnings that have shelf pin holes for most of their length, similar undrilled edged lengths that can be cut to length for shelves, top and bottom, and sheets that can be cut to size for the backs.
That way, the job is fairly easy for you prepare in your shop, transport to destination, and assemble on site, and the friend has the option to change the shelf layout over time as their needs change. If the brief is that the project include doors to hide the mess, and you do a bit of research before starting, you should be able to find some of their precut kitchen doors in suitable suitable sizes and colours to design around. Just remember that the cabinets need to go onto kickers if you need doors.

3.6 metres long is a bloody big cupboard.

First off
How high?
How many doors? -- which will likely be driven by how far each door extends onto the room when open, and also by the size of the bolts and oddments of fabric to be stored.
how many shelves? -- which might be driven by accessibility and how high a roll or bolt of fabric is.
how many drawers?
what material? -- Edge banded Melamine is probably the best choice in terms of cost and minimal long term dust. in use

IKEA is a very good source of suitable ready to assemble inexpensive material -- but their drawers tend to be too deep IMO for sewing materials, especially thread and needles. Dentists drawers are usually a better height for threads, etc

I did something similar, 19mm melamine and the shelf loads were picked up from the floor by vertical panels between the shelves which also acted as partitions for different stuff. It was all bolted to the wall and instead of doors I put a curtain across the front of it which effectively makes it disappear when closed.

I did bookshelves about 2.5 metres long using treated floor joists/bearers supported on the back of the shelf, they were 42mm thick by the time I machined the rough head finish off them and look fantastic with a coat of clear as they have minimal defects in them due to being structural. There has been no bending etc over about 30 years with a full load of books and magazines on them.

Mossvale is only an hour away if you want to have a look, it is all in a sewing room with the same purpose as you intend.

I would be making it like you would a kitchen, 3-4 cupboards wide by however high. Get your friend to commit to compartment sizes she needs and then go from there, and she can specify fixed or adjustable shelves without having to worry about sag. Draw it up with White HMR particleboard in mind and then if she wants something fancy for the doors it will make it easier to fabricate.

Thanks for the responses. Due to a number of reasons, suggestions like the IKEA options are not appropriate. It has to be a custom made job from start to finish.

At this stage, and I stress at this stage, my only question is about material for the shelf frame. Is there a more appropriate timber size than 70 x 35 pine? No doubt as this monster progresses I will have loads more questions.

Originally Posted by TORB

Thanks for the responses. Due to a number of reasons, suggestions like the IKEA options are not appropriate. It has to be a custom made job from start to finish.

At this stage, and I stress at this stage, my only question is about material for the shelf frame. Is there a more appropriate timber size than 70 x 35 pine? No doubt as this monster progresses I will have loads more questions.

70 x 35 pine is approaching the size used for framing a house. I assume your client is not storing roof tiles on the shelves ??
Depending on the number of intermediate supports, and if you are willing to use DAR Tassie Oak, you could possibly build the shelf frame from 25 x 12 mm stuff.

To really answer your question we need to know the total span of your shelves.
3600 mm long implies doors that are 1800 wide, a width which, in my opinion, is totally impractical. If the nominal door width is 450, then 8 doors will cover 3.6 m and each shelf will be 900 wide, which in turn could mean that 18mm melamine shelving is stiff enough to be used for storage.

15 or so years ago, my dad and I build my son a floor to ceiling wardrobe. We used 19 mm thick laminated pin panels from the Green shed and 35 x 19 construction rails. The final construction was as solid as.


If you can post a sketch of the space and design ?

Originally Posted by double.d

I would be making it like you would a kitchen, 3-4 cupboards wide by however high. Get your friend to commit to compartment sizes she needs and then go from there, and she can specify fixed or adjustable shelves without having to worry about sag. Draw it up with White HMR particleboard in mind and then if she wants something fancy for the doors it will make it easier to fabricate.

If it was me I would advise your friend to consider this as an option. One thing that I would add is with the depth of the cupboard such small items unless stored in little boxes would be lost at the back of the cupboard.

Originally Posted by TORB

Thanks for the responses. Due to a number of reasons, suggestions like the IKEA options are not appropriate. It has to be a custom made job from start to finish.

At this stage, and I stress at this stage, my only question is about material for the shelf frame. Is there a more appropriate timber size than 70 x 35 pine? No doubt as this monster progresses I will have loads more questions.

I used 70 x 35 for the frame of a built in wardrobe that was 4.2m long x 2.7m tall x 600 mm deep, but it only has 3 "bays" , with each bay covered by double doors each 700mm wide and just one long shelf at about 2m high. The frame was more of a false wall with free standing drawers and shelving units behind it

Like Ian says, for a 900mm wide span 19mm melamine should work. This is all we have in our linen cupboard which is chokka with "stuff"

If you wanted to go to a 1200mm (6 doors) wide span, a 19 x 30 (on edge) melamine strip as under shelf support would probably do it.
If you wanted to not loose the full 30 mm of height then there are lots of ways that a shelf can be stiffened.

size of material is determined by span, load and modulus of elasticity of the material. Why not try the Sagulator deflection calc at woodbin dot com, throw some numbers at it and see what deflection it gives you, assuming evenly distributed load. Generally your door size determines span, I'd start with that.