Custom Cabinets

So given that I'm no longer going the besta route with the discontinuation of the tombos it seems my next option for displaying PFs and Life Size Busts is custom shelving.

And I'm completely out of my depth.

I would not even know where to begin. Where do I look for someone to do it? How do I come up with a plan that will look good in my home? Are glass shelves capable of holding multiple pieces including bigger stuff like life size busts?

I figured we could use a dedicated thread for advice on custom displays similar to the besta thread. And I guess we'll be starting with my issues.

I live in Connecticut as well so if anyone is in the area and can suggest someone that would be awesome!

i would start on Angieslist.com. It's like $14 a year. Just look for anyone who does kitchen/media cabinets. Depending on your designs, you could even ask a general contractor to come out and give you some ideas/estimates.

Why not PAX?

pavehawk78 said:

Why not PAX?

Click to expand...

I considered it but I'm not sure I like the pax precisely for its size. The depth makes all of the PFs look puny to me and since I plan on getting some smaller pieces like props and dioramas eventually those will look especially tiny. The shelves also seem to have a bowing problem which I am not handy enough to deal with. I don't think I even own a single tool. I probably couldn't put the pax together if I tried! Plus I just read that the material ikea uses to make the bestas and pax (Their fake wood like stuff) is very bad for your health.

Please answer the following questions as if you could get exactly what you want


How tall do you want your cabinet to be?

How deep do you want it to been?

What color do you want for the main parts, sides/back bottom top

Do you want adjustable shelves?

What style do you want?

1. Approx. 90 inches tall
2. 21 inches deep (Got to fit that Grievous PF!)
3. A very dark wood to match the rest of my furniture in the room.
4. Shelves would need to be adjustable. Preferably glass if it would be stable enough to hold the weight of busts and statues.
5. I'm not sure what you mean about style. The house is fairly modern looking so I suppose that might help answer your question. I don't want it to look like Grandma's china cabinet!

Oh and here is a picture of the room they would go in. Probably in the hidden corner on the left in the tv area but you get the idea of what the room looks like.

If you're not confident working with material it's probably not the best route to go.
They're called 'custom' for a reason, built to suit your needs.
Probably best getting a professional in as I doubt anyone here can draw up plans, and talk you through the process, without physically seeing what room you have to work with.
The reason most of us stick with Ikea.

You could always ask Boba Debt...

Edit: Damn! Didn't see BD had already commented

SwiftC said:

Plus I just read that the material ikea uses to make the bestas and pax (Their fake wood like stuff) is very bad for your health.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it will be fine as long as you don't try to eat or smoke it...
It's the Hotdogs I'd worry about.

That is a rather tall and deep cabinet


So I have to ask some follow up questions

How wide do you want it?

Would 21" wide verticals give you enough room (the shelf would be about 20" x 20"

What would the average height of each display area be?

Can you post a picture of the corner?

SwiftC said:

1. Approx. 90 inches tall
2. 21 inches deep (Got to fit that Grievous PF!)
3. A very dark wood to match the rest of my furniture in the room.
4. Shelves would need to be adjustable. Preferably glass if it would be stable enough to hold the weight of busts and statues.
5. I'm not sure what you mean about style. The house is fairly modern looking so I suppose that might help answer your question. I don't want it to look like Grandma's china cabinet!

Click to expand...

Sorry about the slow reply! I was at work!

1. Around 80 inches or so. I've got a lot of stuff.
2. No. The tallest piece I have is a bust and it's 28 inches tall plus it needs some headroom. And it's 24 inches wide.
3. The average height would be around 25 inches, maybe a few inches less.
4. I actually don't have a picture of the corner. And I can't take one because I haven't moved in yet! It's just a white wall like the tv area. In fact if the cabinet ends up being to big it may just go to the left of the tv.

Also, I don't know if I made it explicitly clear but I would also need the whole thing to be covered by glass. The whole idea is no dust!

The more I think about the process of custom cabinets the more I realize I am probably going to be dropping some serious cash! I hope I can afford it or I don't know where I'm going to put all of my crap

I would recommend watching the New Yankee Workshop with Norm Abram and buying yourself a reasonable table saw. Shelving is the most basic of woodworking projects and you can literally build anything you want the exact way that you want it.

My skills are not advanced and my shelves are not perfect but I did make them myself. These have been posted in my thread but hopefully no one will mind if I post them here since they seem to be related to the subject of this thread anyway:

This was the wall that I cleared and had set aside for a floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall display case:


Created a leveled platform to raise the cabinet to baseboard height:


Created the cases in 3 separate pieces due to their sizes. The only tools I needed to do this were a table saw (you could likely get away with just a circular saw if you bought a good guide for it, and Kreg pocket screws with the pocket hole jig):


Added poplar face frames:


Added shelves that were mounted with "cleats" which are just strips of wood screwed into the sides of the cabinets and fit between the top and bottoms of the shelves:


Added LED strip lights, painted and UV plexi fronts:


I'm not going to say it wasn't a pain and they are not perfect, but they weren't *that* bad to build

I think they look great. I don't think I'm patient or handy enough but I'll certainly weigh the option given the cost of other routes considering how great yours game out.

Golo, those are some nice cabinets



Swiftc: I was thinking I could help you out by making you some easy to assemble units that you could glue and screw together but you are looking to build some big cabinets and shipping would be cost probative even for flat packed units




So you have a couple choices.


1. You could go the custom route but they will cost you a fortune

2. You could buy face-frameless pantry cabinets from a place that sells kitchen cabinets. These are 84" tall and 18" deep and available in widths of 18", 21", 24" or 27" wide

The cabinet would just act as a base to work with. You would have to have a glass shop make you glass doors and glass shelves and that would be expensive

3: You could vacation in NC and spend a weekend in my shop building them but you would need a U-Haul to get the unit home

Well I was looking around for ideas and I saw this: https://www.sideshowtoy.com/experience/2013/01/09/featured-collector-mranderson00001/

The guy seems to have stopped collecting but I love the display cases and I think I found them or something similar here: https://www.buystoreshelving.com/display_cases/

Problem is it is glass shelves which scare me. I mean they look fine in the picture but I can't help being paranoid that his shelves collapsed or something and that's why he stopped collecting.

Thoughts?

Glass is a lot stronger then most people think, but the thicker you get the more expensive it is.

In a 21 x21 square shelf you could go with 3/8 tempered glass it would hold a lot of weight

Or you could go with shelves like what I build which were a combination of wood and steel mesh.



You can always take a commercial style case and dress it up with inexpensive painted or stained molding.

I think I'm going to go with these cases. It doesn't specify anywhere (At least on the sites I've seen them so far) how much weight they hold so I'll have to call one of them to see if I can find out. Thanks for your help though Boba Debt! I really appreciate the time you took!

You're welcome

Which cabinets are you going to buy?

can you post a pic or the model number?

Sure. On the page I linked before the item code is: SCTR-GLASS

And here is a pic:

About how much money and hours would you say you spent on building this, including the paint, not including the lighting?