One Room Challenge: Week 3 – Building The Upper Cabinets

Today marks week 3 of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge and I am so excited to be a guest participant! Be sure to follow me on Instagram @robynjohanna_  to catch the behind the scenes on stories.

WHAT IS THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE?

The One Room Challenge (ORC) is a biannual design event that challenges participants to transform a room in eight weeks and share the process along the way. Each round, twenty design influencers are selected as ‘Feature Designers’ and anyone is welcome to join as a guest participant. The ORC is not a competition, rather it is a community celebrating creativity and design.

 HOME OFFICE DESIGN PLAN RECAP

Before we dive into this week’s update, let’s recap the design plan for our home office.

Here’s the design board:

Here’s my vision for the build-ins:

Here’s the to do list: 

• Built-in T-shaped Desk
  • Build 3 Cabinets with Drawers
  • Build 3 Cabinets with Shelves
  • Prime + Paint Cabinets
  • Order Drawer Fronts + Doors
  • Prime + Paint Drawer Fronts + Doors
  • Attach Drawer Fronts + Doors
  • Attached Hardware
  • Build Desktop
  • Sand + Stain + Poly Desktop

• Faux Shiplap
  • RIP Hardboard to Size
  • Prime + Paint
  • Install

• Floating Shelf
  • Build Floating Shelf
  • Install

• Potential Slat Wall
  • Cut Slats
  • Sand + Stain
  • Install

• Potential Ceiling Treatment (if my idea works on a suspended ceiling)
• Put Together Reading Corner
• Assemble + Style Open Bookshelf
• Wall Art

THE BUILT INS

In last week’s recap, I finished 3 out of 4 base cabinets before running out of screws. I’m happy to report that I was able to get to our neighbouring city to pick up screws and build the fourth base cabinet. All the base cabinets are built!

Originally, this week’s plan was to start on the drawer boxes and maybe even make some progress on the desktop. But, I quickly realized that if I want any chance of the drawer fronts and doors arriving before the end of the challenge I best get the upper cabinets built so I can measure for the doors and place the order asap.

So, I promptly got to work on the uppers. I finalized the measurements and started cutting before realizing I only had enough MDF on hand for one upper cabinet. Running out of materials seems to be the theme of week 3! Luckily I was able to source some MDF locally and build the second upper cabinet, but not without a few bumps along the way. You can read about those here. 

THE DRAWER BOXES

My goal this week was to get started on the drawer boxes and I was ahead of schedule… until… I ran out of pocket hole screws. See, I told you, a common theme for week 3! Who knew you needed so many pocket holes for drawer boxes?!

I spent a good chunk of time planning out the drawer boxes. And, nearly a full day cutting 50 boards that will become 10 drawer boxes. My first ever drawer box build, you guys! I cut the board on a Wednesday and I wasn’t able to start assembling until Friday and it was killing me to know whether or not my cuts were right. So far, so good. I don’t think I’ll be completely at ease and able to celebrate until they are installed in the cabinet. 

As of right now, half of the drawer boxes are built and I’ll finish the other half once I pick up more screws. When the store that sells pocket hole screws is an hour away, running out causes a bit of a delay.

WEEK 3 RECAP + WEEK 4 PLAN

In summary, this week I built the upper cabinet boxes (they still need shelves), ordered the drawer fronts + doors, cut all the boards and built half of the drawer boxes.

This coming week I plan to finish building the drawer boxes, get some primer (and maybe paint) on the cabinet boxes, possibly install the outer base cabinets and the frame for the floating shelf so I can prep for shiplap! 

Thank you for your support and encouragement!  I’ll catch you next week! And, until then you can find me sharing all things One Room Challenge behind the scenes on instagram @robynjohanna_ 

 

Check out the progress the ORC participants are making on their spaces here.

In case you missed any of my Spring 2021 ORC weekly updates, you can find them here:

Week 1 – The Plan  |  Week 2 – Building The Base Cabinets