Supplies
- 4’x8’x3/4” sanded birch plywood
- 1”x2”x8’ pine (4)
- 1-1/8” x 10’ lattice strip (3)
- 60”x25-1/2” thin piece of plywood (for the back)
- 2 1/2” wood screws
- 1-5/8”x7 trim screws
- 4 knobs
- 8 hinges
- 4 double magnetic latches
- 6 Ikea Besta square white legs
- mirrored glass (wait to purchase this)
- primer
- white paint (we used a semi-gloss finish)
- caulk
- liquid nails
- mirror clips
Repeat these steps for the other side.
Next, add the top piece to the sides the same way.
Use a tape measurer to mark the middle of your rectangle. Insert the middle piece at your marks & attach it, again with three screws going in the top & bottom. (Please ignore the trash spilling out of the recycling bin in the photo below & all the papers on the floor the girls were coloring!)
At this point, we added the legs & Mark began working on the doors while I sanded, primed, & painted the base piece. (I used an orbital sander to sand down the raw/cut edges of the wood before priming & painting them. After doing so, I thought it looked fine, but you may want to add veneer or trim to the raw edges.) To create the doors, we cut the 1”x2” pine boards into eight 11-1/4” pieces (tops & bottoms of the doors). Then we cut eight more pieces into 25-3/8” length which would be the sides of the doors.
My husband used his router to create an area for the mirror to set. If you don’t have a router, I’m sure you could omit this step & just attach the mirror using clips. Then, we attached the side pieces to the tops & bottoms using 1-5/8”x7 trim screws with a kreg jig to create the doors.
Next we attached the hinges to the doors. In order for inset doors to function properly, a notch needs to be made the size of the hinge plate where it rests on the side of the door. This allows for ample clearance on the hinge side of the door, while minimizing the gap between the door & the side of the cabinet.
At this point, I recommend attaching the doors to the cabinets just to make sure they do not need to be trimmed down or need any other adjustments. (It would really stink to find out the doors were too big after the mirrors were cut & installed.)
Once we knew our doors would fit properly, we headed to Lowes & got mirrored glass cut to fit our openings. I recommend measuring all the doors to make sure your glass fits properly. (FYI: Lowes will cut your glass for you. Home Depot will not.) We also primed & painted the doors before installing the glass.
Once we had our glass, we removed the doors & used some clips to attach it to the wood. You could attach your mirrors with these fasteners if you did not route the edges of the doors. We ended up using these clips & some mirror tape, which was kind of janky, but we couldn't find any clips that would work for us. Be careful not to over-tighten the screw or the mirror could crack.
We just put one on each side of the doors.
This is what the doors looked like once the glass was installed.
After a quick clean of the glass, Mark used an angle finder to determine the angle of the corners & cut the first diagonal piece of lattice strip (which we pre-painted).
Most miter saws cannot cut such a sharp angle. There are a couple of ways you can cut these angles. Number one: Using the angle finder, trace the line that you need to cut & cut it either using a band saw, jig saw, circular saw, etc. Just cut it across the line. Number two: Some miter saws have a 90 degree fence that can fit into the miter saw. Using the fence, subtract the angle from 90 degrees to determine what setting your miter saw should be at.
We then attached it using a thin strip of liquid nails.
Again, Mark used his angle finder to determine the angle of the bottom corner & the angle at which it met the middle of the other piece of lattice. He then cut the lattice & repeated the same steps to get the top half to complete the X. Once those pieces were cut, we attached them with liquid nails.
You will want to caulk any gaps in the trim.
Once the glue was dry, we re-attached the doors & installed the knobs. Then we added double magnetic latches. These act as a stop so the doors don’t push through the cabinet. The magnets on ours were a little strong, so I put some tape over them to lessen their strength (I feared the kids would pull them so hard they might break the glass…).
Finally, we attached the thin piece of plywood to the back using some nails.
I am still so happy with how this turned out!
Click here to see the full tour of the family room.
Linking to the Pretty Preppy Party at Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss
