Cubbyhole Shelves

I live in a small house. I have limited space in a dresser and small closet for my clothes. I do have wall space (at least until I frame more photos and prints). I am experimenting with a cubbyhole cabinet for storing folded clothes. Tee shirts, sweaters, layers, trousers, etc.

The idea is to hang this thing on the wall in the bedroom and increase my clothing storage. This is not something for everyone but it may prove to be a practical solution.

As I thought through the project I wanted to minimize the material and weight. My first incarnation did all right but it is still over-engineered. I figured out an exo-skeleton approach where face frames could provide most of the strength and load-bearing for the shelves and contents.

I started with a carcase made from 7/16 inch thick OSB (poor-man’s plywood). The depth is about twelve inches. The width is about four feet and the height is about three feet.

I make a face-frame from ripped Douglas fir two-by-four studs (poor man’s hardwood) about three-fourths inch thick and the natural 1 1/2 inch width.

These I then route down the middle to half their thickness to slot over the OSB edges. This is done front and back for each of the shelves. Once it is all glued and joined then I have a set of four foot long shelves that are supported by face frames.

The vertical dividers I simplify by using 1/8 inch thick shock cord pulled through holes drilled in the shelves at the divider intervals. The space between the cord is about 1 inch. This will keep each stack of clothes separate but minimize weight. The cord is black and looks like black metal rods. I chose shock cord so I could keep it in tension and just ties off the ends on the top of the carcase where they exit the OSB. I only take one pass down and back at a time to make it easier to equalize the tension on the two strands.

I painted the OSB in green acrylic (2 coats) and left the face frame as brightwork with only a tung oil finish. The Douglas fir looks attractive this way.

Next I made some mounting hardware out of left over 2x4 scrapes. I notched the mounts to fit the horizontal face frame at the top back. I then fashioned a couple of rotating gates to close over the face frame to keep it in place.

The mounts will be screwed into wall studs with two screws each. And since the whole cabinet can slide left-right I have some ability to make final adjustments.

At the bottom of the shelves I added spacers of the same thickness of the mounts to keep the spacing from the wall consistent. I made another pair of mounts for the bottom as well so the load is supported from the bottom to make sure the vertical load is in compression.

I am now thinking about redoing the design. I would keep the same dimensions but eliminate the OSB as too heavy. I would instead use 1/8 inch plywood. Again the face frame would maintain stiffness and strength. I would also eliminate the end pieces and use more shock cord to close the sides. This would be radically lighter. I leaves a problem of alleviating any racking that might happen front to back.