French Provincia / Hamptons Bookcase - what material?

Hi everyone.

I am just starting out with woodworking and I have my first real project !

I am going to make a new cabinet for my wife's' retail shop based on the French Provincial / Hampton's Style bookcase (see pic)

She currently has 4-5 in her shop, and there are currently about 3 different styles from different manufacturers.

So I am going to model mine on what we both like from each style.

My question is, what to build them out of.

Originally I was going to use plywood, however, with all the raised panel inserts (cabinet doors, side carcass ) it makes it a real pain due to the exposed and molded edges.

MDF would solve that, however, weight would then be a factor as well as shelf support (total width ~2400 wide, so 3 shelves ~750). I am also wondering about durability with the mdf.

Third choice is solid wood.

Now as I said, I am a newbie to cabinet making. Solid wood options, I am guessing would be softwood (pine) or hardwood (oak), any suggestions?

With the project, cost is not a major concern, but it is a factor, so I dont want to go with any wood that is exotic/too expensive.

It will be painted.

Does furniture made in pine 'look cheap' after it is painted ?

Looking forward to some answers.

Thanks.

What you want to do is known as paint grade construction . Anything can be used of course . Solid is a good idea . MDF is horrible to work with and yes the weight would be massive . But if the competitors are using MDF and have the CNC gear to cut it out then they can build faster than you can do in solid so you would be building a better quality more expensive piece than them . The pine to use is Clear Radiata , it’s from NZ and has not a knot in it :) . You can possibly get Clear Radiata grown here , not sure , the NZ stuff is great though . I hope you draw it up and work out a cutting list to make things simple and efficient. A piece of paper and a scale ruler is all you need . Computer is fast if you know how .
Also , it’s huge and would end up extremely heavy if it were Balsa wood . Are you going to do it in three sections sitting on a one piece plinth with a one piece cornice ? Another good way to make it is pine veneered chip board carcase with solid clear fronts and mouldings . Chip board is lighter than MDF and screwing , nailing to it is much better .

Rob

Thanks Rob,
From what I've inspected of the different cabinets, they do seem to be solid timber, not mdf.
Weight wise, I've been moving them around for years, setting them up at trade shows, they are not that bad really.
There is 2 sections- base and the bookcase. I will be making mine like the others.
All you do to fit together is lift the top section on one edge on the floor cabinet and then just lift and slide the top along the base, only have to lift half the weight, easy peasy !
This cabinet wont be going to trade shows (I hope :C )

What is paint grade construction? I'm guessing using any material or mix of materials that provides a smooth enough paintable surface?

Also you dont seem to be a fan of mdf, I thought mdf would be a good choice due to all the molding ?

Corey

my 2 cents ...

so you are looking to build something like this

https://www.woodworkforums.com/attac...9&d=1581887619

it's paint grade.
I'd use a mix of MDF (the uprights and doors) and use solid pine (shelves and other horizontal bits) and enclose the whole thing with a solid pine face frame.
I'd make it as three separate modules -- using the face frame to cover the joins.

If you are serious about building the unit, invest in a Festool Domino jointer and PAY a commercial place to pre-cut all the MDF components, and spray paint everything.

Progress so far...... I'm pretty stoked seeing this is my first attempt at woodworking. :2tsup:

Cabinet is 70% painted (picture is before painting)
Bookcase just finished construction tonight. I'll start sanding , filling etc ready for painting tomorrow.

Construction was mainly mdf. Sides, base, top, raised panels etc. Only used pine for shelf supports and a few moldings.

I looked into using decent ply, but cost was the prohibiting factor, as well as all the routed panels moldings etc. not being ply friendly.
I looked into solid radiata pine as suggested by auscab above, however the max width and thickness that I could get was not what I had designed in my head.
I also decided against it, as when looking at pine from Bunnings (yes I know its crap), it is all over the place and I dont have a jointer / thicknesser to straighten it out.
So based on the fact that mdf is cheap and straight, that was the material of choice for this project.

I have learnt so much from this project, it really boggles my mind.
There are areas that I look at now and thick "why did I do that??", mistakes were made, but as I said, they are lessons learnt.

All in all, I very happy with it. My wife is happy as well. Happy Wife, Happy Life.

I'll post back a finished picture once painted and in the shop.
Attachment 471771Attachment 471772

I'm impressed.
well done

You'd have to be happy with that, excellent result. So if I get a radio like that will my woodworking skills improve in leaps and bounds? :D

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Originally Posted by aldav

You'd have to be happy with that, excellent result. So if I get a radio like that will my woodworking skills improve in leaps and bounds? :D

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Well, I'm just showing my age. Nowadays everyone is wearing those radio bluetooth ear muffs !

Its the only time I get to use that thing, its just too big for my day to day on-site work and takes up too much room in the ute!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ravencsr

I am just starting out with woodworking and I have my first real project !

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Really? You really found the fast track to accuracy and detail!

Nice shop cabinet your wife should be duly impressed! I am.

Very impressive!

What techniques did you use to square and true everything up first go? Looks like you have some good jigs set up (from the foreground).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fuzzie

Really? You really found the fast track to accuracy and detail!

Nice shop cabinet your wife should be duly impressed! I am.

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Yeah, she's really putting on the pressure to paint it up and move it into her shop.

Only problem, its a gift shop that had to close due to Corona :(

She wants to have it in though ready for when we can reopen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cgcc

Very impressive!

What techniques did you use to square and true everything up first go? Looks like you have some good jigs set up (from the foreground).

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Well this has been ongoing for a couple of months now. And there is reason behind this method, I'll explain later :U

All I had at the start was a little crappy Ozito chop saw, a ryobi laminate trimmer and my Milwaukee battery tools I use for work (circular saw, drill, impact driver, angle grinder).

I'll list the jigs I had to make in order, just in case someone else just starting out needs some help. I dont know if you can post youtube links to the videos I referenced in here or not -


1) First up were some shopdog saw horses that were the base for my work table. I just notched 3 pine studs between them, levelled everything up and then screwed on a sheet of mdf, instant table with storage for long offcuts underneath !

YouTube


2) Seeing I didnt have any table saw at this stage, I had to have a way of cutting straight lengths of sheets. Enter the diy track saw guide

YouTube

I made 3. One 8 foot for the full 2400 x 1200 sheets , one just over 4 foot for cross cutting a full sheet and the last a 3 foot. I mainly used the 8 foot and 3 foot.


3) I then purchased an aeg 184mm circular saw for the table saw as I still may have needed the Milwaukee for work and didnt want to have it permanently bolted in.

YouTube

I didnt have the hardware on hand to make his fence so I based mine on the following fence

YouTube

For some reason there was too much play once tightened, so I incorporated an angled piece such as in this video YouTube to help reduce the play.


4) Cross cut sled for table saw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebIOAaPhhU



5) Plunge router with lifter. When I made the table saw, I always envisaged having a router in there as well, but a more powerful one than my ryobi trimmer. I purchased the Triton tra001 plunge router.

I got this as it can be cranked up and down from the top of the table, rather than having to lift the table saw lid each time and manually do it.

Note : Major downside to this router is that it has a safety cover over the on/off button that you have to engage/dis-engage each time you want to change router bits. Let me know if anyone has found a work around to this !

After the router was in a router fence similar to this one was constructed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbp9PAdEMnI



So thats about it. With all those jigs I didnt really need anything else......... except my brand new Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Mitre Saw :yeah: .

I must admit, I'm not entirely happy with the precision of my jigs as it is very hard to get precision cuts when you are just starting out to make the jigs that make precision cuts (if you know what I mean :- )


I watched many vids on YT over the weeks to get the ideas for all the above, and as I said, I have learnt a lot from doing all this.

Let me know if anyone wants any pics of anything.


Oh, btw, I forgot to mention the reason behind all this. Before the bookcase was commissioned by my wife, I was planning on renovating my study with floor to ceiling shelves, TV cabinet display and a day bed.

However, as I said, my tool collection was not the best and I wanted to upgrade some tools before I started, but money was tight. Then my wife mentioned she needed another bookcase for her shop like the one linked in my first post.

She was going to buy one when I told her that I could make her one for less than half the price she was willing to pay.

She accepted !

And I got a lot of brand new toys !

So even though it ended costing a little over half with everything tallied, I now have the tools to build my own projects.

She has been so impressed, she has now commissioned a full length wall cabinet for the living room ! :rolleyes:

Ah well, Happy Wife, Happy Life !

Cheers
Corey

All painted and into the shop, job complete!
Attachment 472397Attachment 472398

Fantastic job mate. You have to pretty stoked with how it came out!