Make Your Own Mid Century Cabin

This lesson will teach you how you can make your own mid century style cabin on a budget. The project will make it possible to create this cabinet with a minimal of tools that most have at home laying around.

Materials:

1) Birch multiplex 1.8mm thickness (if you would like to use other wood types that are full wood, feel free as this will make the varnish process less necessary)

2) M6, 120mm length (or more) wood screws (flad head)

3) 10mm diameter wood dowel (long or short)

(ex.: https://www.brico.be/nl/gereedschap-installatie/handgereedschap/deuvels/gerilde-stok-beuken-diam-10-mm-x-100-cm/1297600)

4) Mid century style furniture legs (between 10-20cm is perfect)

ex. : https://www.amazon.com/WEICHEN-Stainless-Furniture-Polishing-Cupboard/dp/B08291Z4BY/ref=sr_1_38?keywords=mid+century+furniture+legs&qid=1661023444&sprefix=mid+century+furnitur%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-38 ; https://www.amazon.com/ALXEH-Furniture-Mid-Century-Cabinet-Replacement/dp/B09XN6DDCJ/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=mid+century+furniture+legs&qid=1661023444&sprefix=mid+century+furnitur%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-17 ; https://www.brico.be/nl/badkamer-keuken-wonen/meubelen/meubelpoten/duraline-meubelpoot-vierkant-staal-2-5x2-5x15cm-zwart/6306395

5) M4, 20mm wood screws (or wood screws that fit the furniture legs that won't go trough the lower shelf thickness)

6) Dark varnish (feel free to chose what feels most mid century to you, in combination with birch i found that the dark oak varnish is best to get the teak look)

7) Wood glue

8) wood filler

Tools:

1) A drill

2) A ruler

3) A wood handsaw

4) Masking tape

5) A (medium)brush (for the varnish)

6) Sandpaper

7) A woodfile

8) A putty knife

(All picture measurments are in millimeters)

Start by getting your multiplex cut into 5 pieces, The first (sideshelf) and second piece (upper- and lowershelf) need to be doubled as it are the sides, top and bottom of the cabin.

Make sure you sand down the pieces before you start working.

1) Start by predrilling a little hole of 2-4mm diameter on the locations that were marked, where the screws will go. This will make it a lot easier to drill them in. The drawing above shows the exact measurments. you can make the 2-4mm hole go through totally (The holes are symmetrical, so the one in the middle is in the exact middle.)

2) After having predrilled the screws holes, we will predrill the holes for the dowels so the screws won't be visible after assembling our cabin. We want the screw to go into half the thickness of the shelfves. Therefor we will take our 10mm drill and place a stroke of tape at the 9mm mark. This will guide us to not drill to deep. (be aware that the sides should be drilled mirrored, the same goes for the uppershelf and lowershelf.)

3) Depending on the furniture legs chosen, you can already predrill those holes as well. We chose black metal squared 14 cm high furniture legs. The location of the legs is a personal choice, but we advice to put them at a minimum of 10 cm to the inside from the front and minimum 5 cm from the side. This to get the mid century look.

After predrilling everything we can start by brining the two sides and uppershelf together. Use the M6 screws to screw everything together (with help of a drill.) Then repeat the process for the lowershelf.

Tip: A second person who keeps everything in place and aligns the shelves can be a big help

Extra: Depending on the orientation of the side shelves, the midshelf will be positioned more to the uppershelf or more to the lowershelf (feel free to chose your preference)

Now we have made the frame and can place the midshelf in the frame. Ideally place the frame on its side so its easier to screw the midshelf in.

Place the dowels inside the dowel hole that was predrilled. Mark down where it sticks out. Get the dowel out and saw it on size.

Tip: Make sure you leave saw a bit further to the outside of your line. We will sand down the left overs to have a perfect fit with the shelf.

Now you can choose to go to step 6 or go to step 7 by disassembling everything and varnishing it first.

(ex. : https://www.pinterest.com/pin/632966922642815287/)

To finalize the cabin, put some wood glue in the dowel holes and place the dowels in. You can put wood glue in between touching surfaces if you want to. Take it slow and go side by side and let them dry a bit before you move on to the next side. It is best to place the frame on its side. Now wait till this is dry (24hrs) and sand down the dowel so everything looks clean.

Tip: You can use a woodfile if you have alot of the dowel sticking out

Tip: Finish it off by filling the gaps with some dark wood filler, if there are gaps. (use a putty knife)

(PRO: If you have the possibility to drill the dowels so they are invisible, this would work great as well.)

FROM STEP 6: Now that everything is assembled together you can sand down the cabin and apply the varnish as described upon the label.

Tip: when you varnish, apply the varnish with a brush in the direction of the woods grains.

FROM STEP 5: Personally because we wanted a dark teak look, we varnished before we put everything together, so we chose to varnish two layers, after we had sanded down the dowels. (we didn't apply the wood glue yet) We disassembled the whole cabin. We varnished every part separately. After the two layers of varnish were done, we put the cabin back together and put in the glue and wood filler. Lastly we sanded down everything one more time and finished the cabin off with a final varnish layer when it was fully assembled.

Now use the M4 screws to put the legs on your cabin and you are ready.

Enjoy your self made mid century looking cabin.