Wall Mounted Liquor Cabinet

NOTE: For this project, I upcycled a cabinet door from a TV stand that was being thrown out. For that reason, this Instructable will NOT include the directions for building the glass door shown, even though that's the coolest part of the project. I will provide the dimensions of the one I used in case you want to try building your own.

We were about to throw out an old TV stand so I decided to harvest the doors, drawer slides, and a few other components to use on other projects. I thought the glass door with diamond accent was a cool feature, so I came up with a wall mounted liquor cabinet design that would accommodate the door without modification.

This cabinet will easily hold most .750L bottles on the lower shelf and smaller bottles, mixers, or glasses can be put on the top shelf. You theoretically could fit a 1.5L bottle in here, but some clearance on either side is required to get the bottle out. Another option would be to make the cabinet deeper so that there is more room to add/remove bottles.

The door slides open to the right rather than hinging out just because I thought it would look fancier. Having a hinged door will actually give you more space inside if needed. Either way, I highly recommend soft-close to prevent someone from slamming it closed and breaking stuff inside.

I ended up using a lot of leftover scraps from other projects for this build, but here is a list of components and lumber required if starting from scratch:

Cut List: See the pdf drawing for the lumber cut list

Door: See note above. I upcycled the door so the materials will depend on whatever you decide to use. You can see the drawing pdf for dimensions in case you want to DIY it.

Cabinet: I recommend using hardwood like oak to build this because of the weight of the bottles and durability. I built mine using balsam solely because I had some scrap 1x6's from another project. Some of the inside pieces are pine since they are only for structural support. The backing is just 1/4" plywood.

Drawer Slides: 16" soft close side mount full extension drawer slides (Home Depot SKU 1002763071)

Cabinet Pull: I picked up a matte black cabinet knob from Home Depot (SKU 1000747426)

Lockset: I used a cheap cabinet lockset from Home Depot (SKU 630182)

Trim: I used 11/16" x 1 3/8" base cap molding from Home Depot (SKU 615406)

Hardware and Other Equipment: Pocket hole screws and pocket hole plugs, truss head screws for drawer slides (I don't recommend using the screws that come with the slides), wood glue, clamps, saws (I used a miter, jigsaw and table saw), drill (make sure you have a bit big enough for the lockset hole if used), sander, paintbrushes, level, screws to mount to wall

Paint: I used matte black Painters Touch paint with 3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane.

Step one is to cut all the pieces to size using the drawing print provided.

Once everything is cut to size, I recommend performing a dry fit just to make sure none of the measurements were missed. You can then drill the pocket hole screws as shown in the attached photo. The top two pieces are the front frame pieces directly above and below the door. The shelf and cabinet box top and bottom are the three pieces in the middle. The bottom pieces are horizontal structural supports for mounting to the wall and holding up the shelf.

This is a good time to cut the two notches in the side piece that allow the drawer slides to pass through. If you decide to use a hinge instead of the slides, these notches are not required. The location and size of the notches are shown in the drawing.

Build the cabinet box using the pocket hole screws and wood glue to hold everything together. You can put all of the pocket hole screws on the inside or leave them on the outside and use plugs. I put mine on the outside just to make it easier to cut and sand later. If you are staining the wood, I would put all holes on the inside to hide discontinuities in the grain. Make sure your notched side piece is on the side that you want the door to open and that the notches are facing forward.

I recommend connecting the outer box first and checking square (measure corner to corner to see if numbers match). Once that is done, you can then install the shelf at the chosen height. When installing the shelf, use a clamp, some pin nails, or a scrap piece of wood to hold in place. Sometimes torqueing down pocket hole screws can cause the piece to walk slightly upwards if not held in place.

After the box and shelf are connected, you can add the two horizontal structural braces on the back using glue and the pocket hole screws. The braces should be clamped to the shelf and box top piece will attaching to eliminate potential gaps. These horizontal braces should be on the opposite side of where the notches are.

For the drawing slide supports (same as the cabinet face frames directly above and below the door), start by gluing and/or pin nailing the two pieces together, make sure they are flush along the entire long edge with pocket holes on the back side. The pocket holes should be exposed after gluing up and the edge that is flush should have the pocket holes pointing towards them (see third photo). Once the glue dries, you can install to the cabinet as shown in the pictures. The front surfaces should be as flush as possible to make sure the drawer slide doesn't foul on opening.

This is a good opportunity to make sure your drawer slides will fit in the openings and slide without hitting the edges of the notches. If your 1/2" thick face frame piece is thinner than 1/2", your drawer slide should sit just slightly proud of the box, which will make door installation easier. If your slides do not sit proud of the cabinet, you can use washers under the door to prop it up a bit.

Prior to installing the back, you should try to knock out as much of the wood filling and sanding as possible. This task gets quite a bit harder once the back is installed. Also, you can notice in the third picture that I removed both of the slides to make sanding easier. Once the holes are there, it is easier to reinstall in the exact same position.

Cut the plywood to size and pin nail to the frame from the back.

I installed the lockset by drilling a hole through the left side of the cabinet a few inches below the shelf. Once installed, the lock swing (piece that engages the door), should extend past the frame by at least 1/2". Once the lockset is dry fit, you can remove to make painting easier.

Paint it black (or any other color you may want). I recommend also adding at least 2 coats of polyurethane or another durable coating. Then reinstall the slides and lockset.

To attach the door to the slides, I used some double sided tape on the backside of the door where the slides were. Once everything was lined up exactly where I wanted it, I slide the door open (making sure the tape held), and then drilled the slides into the back of the door.

I recommend taking this process slow and checking alignment after each screw just to make sure it still lines up once closed. Once installed, you can add a notch for the lockset lever to the backside of the door. I accomplished this by slamming the lock into the door until a small indent was made. I then took the smallest saw I have (4.5" blade), set the depth to 1/2", and slowly lowered it vertically downward into the door. The center of the blade was in line with the height of the lockset center, which allows the lever to swing into the notch created. If you don't have a small saw, a dremel, oscillating tool, cut off wheel, or even a chisel could be used. Just make sure you don't cut fully through the actual door thickness.

To mount to the wall, make sure you are using #8 screws (or larger) that are at least 2.5" long. You want to hit a wall stud at least twice since this thing can get heavy with bottles inside. To get a screw through the top horizontal brace, I removed the top door slide, and drilled a larger hole (behind where the slide would be) angled upward. I then stuck my driver bit through that hole to engage a screw on the top support. For added support, drill 2 extra holes on your middle shelf horizontal brace and add screws with drywall anchors. Having a buddy help with this step is essential.

Feel free to leave comments if I missed anything in the instructions or if you have questions. Happy building!