Shallow pantry
Between our kitchen and garage we have a little hallway, with closet space as well. The closet is quite deep and we tend to lose track of what kind of food is in there. This too often results in overdate food. A smaller/less deep closet in the walking part of the hallway would solve this. All the small packages of food can be stored in here. The bigger stuff remains in the bigger closet.
The pantry consists of two parts. The bottom part has some shelves for some coke bottles and a few drawers. The top can be closed with two doors. The whole thing is going to be a bit of a Frankenstein piece of furniture, since I want to use it to try out all kinds of joints.
For the bottom I bought a piece of Iroko. I’ve never used it before. It looks nice and the guy who sold it to me said it was like working with oak. Well, it isn’t. Iroko is definitely different. It’s more sticky when you work with it. Some pieces tend to splinter. And the sawdust can be irritating to the eyes, nose and throat.
The first step – as usual – is to saw the wood in usable pieces. I’ve purchased a bow saw for ripping, to speed up the process. I use a clamp (see below) when I need a rest. Practical…
The shelves get a mortise and tenon joint to a small beam of wood, which connects to the legs.
I make sure that the shelves are a sticking out a little, such that I can plane everything flush once assembled.
I’m very happy with my little but heavy workbench at moment like this. I just clamp the whole workpiece to my bench and plane it.
The top is made of maple. I was able to buy some relative cheap planks of maple. With relative cheap, I mean relative cheap for Dutch standards. Wood is expensive here… The 18mm boards are ready to go, saving a lot of ripping and planing work.
The top has three shelves. For the middle one I used sliding dovetails such that the side panels won’t bend outside over time. I’m note sure this is needed tough. But it is just fun to make some. The other shelves use simpel dados. None of the shelves are glued in place.
The doors are frame and panel doors, where the panels are made of some plywood (forgot which kind). I made some small strips of Iroko, which I glued to the inside of the frame. This way the bottom and top really look like they belong to each other.
I also forgot to take pictures of the construction of the top. Here is a photo of the finale result:
