Creating a armoire/closet system- help?

[usone123]

Hi – OK – I am about to move into a house and I have an idea that I am trying to sort out in my head of the best way to do it.

Basically one wall to the right of the door in my living room is open with no windows. The living room is large and canb be separated down the middle. I really need storage space and plan on using that half of the room as an office and wanted to create a closet. But, I don’t want a plain old closet to look like a bedroom.

I want to do a armoine/cabinet/dresser combo.

Basically I want it to cover the entire right side wall from the corner to the doorway and be about 2 feet out. When looking at it from inside the room – I want a cabinet from floor to ceiling on the left, then in the middle a dresser on the bottom that is about waist high with a small cabinet door above it, then on the right side, another large floor to ceiling cabinet. kind of like a giant entertainment center.

The 1st cabinet will be storing shipping supplies so that will be a large open area on the inside – and the 2nd cabinet will be more like a bookshelf with a door.

the middle cabinet I want to add one of those hinges that you see at hotels on the armoire’s where once you open the door – you can slide the door to the left and right of the tv. This space will be either closed 4 storage or available to be open if needed for something.

dresser will just be a dresser.

I know its kind of hard to picture what I’m talking about – but hopefully I explained it ok :).

Now my main question/problem is this – do I want it to be a built-in or a piece of furniture?

What would you do? I think a built in would increase the value of the home so when we sell in 5-10 years it would help increase the price.

or otherwise – I could build it as 3 separate pieces and put them next to each other to move when I move.

I’m leaning towards built in – but trying to figure out how and what material to use? Would I create a shell out of studs and then add drywall for the other layers and just use MDF or plywood for the shelves and doors? Or would I want to create the whole thing with MDF or plywood and just somehow attach it to the wall and floor?

I know I’d have to make it a bit shorter than the room to fit in the room – so I figured I’d do some type of moulding at the top to hide the extra space.

If I made it as 3 pieces of furniture – would you suggest MDF or plywood?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. sorry 4 the long post 🙂

Rae

[Unregistered-Henry in MI]

is that I would buy an armoire and a matching dresser from one of the ready-to-assemble furniture people. Try this for a while as it will be a lot less than building or buying real solid wood furniture. If you still like the concept, you can make pieces exactly to your requirements. With a bit of experience with the commercial units, you can plan around what you really like and what of their features are not acceptable.

Depending on design, you can’t go too far wrong with hardwood faced plywood for case work. You can add a face frame and doors and drawers from there. MDF is OK for painted applications but it sounds like you want a more “furniture-like” look. I would definately consider only individual pieces for this. Your built-in concept may be great for you now and with your current criteria. Other people–potential buyers–may have totally different ideas for the use of the space down the road. And on the same note, you might change jobs and situations before you move also and have a large rebuilding job on the room to remove the features you are considering today.

Henry in MI

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