My Pantry

    

 
I chose to do the pantry in Oak and not Poplar because oak is a harder wood and I was going be putting quite a bit of junk on the shelves.  Poplar will work just fine but I like to push myself a little and I wanted a stained oak pantry. Yes,   Poplar is easier to work with because if you mess up on screwing in the nails you can easily sand,  putty and paint . Oak is  a lot harder to hide the mistakes. You can put wood putty on your mistakes and stain but you can usually see the mistakes after you try and stain. If it doesn't bother you than don't worry about those extra holes.

 We cut the 1x2s and drilled the predrilled and countersunk the holes where the studs were on the wall

I cut some oak baseboards for the closet

 

we marked the studs first and stuck a straight pin in the drywall and nailed to make sure we were going to be hammering into a stud.i used painters tape to keep the boards on the wall. Next we marked the holes in the 1x2s then drilled with a drill press and countersank the holes using a drill press. .we made the holes before we put stained and wipe on poly on because I didn't want the finish scratched and you always have to sand after making holes.you can see the screws in the corners. we had to go in at an angle to get away from screwing in the ends of the oak boards. If you pop a nail with a nailgun or screw at the end of wood it will split.I will not screw or nail any closer than 1 inch from the end of a board. I also glued a piece of trim over the screws and you can see in the picture there are no screw heads. This allows for a more finished look. (I know what you are thinking "You cant even see that with the stuff piled onto the shelves") I just couldn't leave all those screws showing

 we cut the shelves for the pantry out of 3/4 inch plywood and also stained with a dark walnut and wipe on poly finish. do not use anything smaller than 3/4 inch because when you weigh down the shelves they will sag.

      I always use SPAX screws . I love SPAX! I have a house that has some really dried out old boards in the walls and I drilled the 1x2s on the wall and the regular screws broke a few times. and then I discovered SPAX.


 

 

In this photo I glued a piece of decorative shelf front on the front of the 3/4 inch plywood  to cover up the rough end of the shelf. Next, I glued another piece on the top end of the shelf and bucked it to the front piece so it will form a ledge . This ledge will prevent things on the shelf from falling off and damaging anything below and gives it a more trimmed out look.

 

 

 

I applied a natural minwax stain on the drawer and about 7 coats of wipe on poly sanding between each coat . I was trying to make the drawers shiny and smooth like a guitar. I also added some trim on the drawers.

In this photo I had my cabinet maker build me a spice cabinet

 

I put a door on the spice cabinet

I purchased these corbels off ebay for around 18.00 a piece. If you are in need of the corbels check ebay first it will save you a lot of money. I also put up crown molding . This was a closet and I took down the door and trimmed it out on the inside with decorative trim so it stays open. I will probably add a curtain later and swing the curtain to the right so I can easily get things in and out. There is a door on the left that swings in front of this so I could not handle closing one door to open another .

I used Loctite glue to glue the front pieces and top pieces on the shelves to make the ledge. I also used Loctite all purpose glue to glue the corbels on the wall . I always put superglue on anything heavy that I am gluing with Loctite so it will hold the corbels in place until the glue dries. On the 1x2s that hold up the shelves I also went back and glued a piece of decorative trim over all the screws that I countersank to hide everything. Its an extra cost but it makes the look flawless.

I did all the refinishing work myself with Dark Walnut stain and Wipe-On Poly.
When applying the Wipe On Poly use those lens cleaning pads you buy in the package you will have less lint coming off. I usually apply 5 coats . Always run a fine sanding pad down it one or two times between coats. I never run the sanding sponge until after the 3rd coat  because it will take the stain off. Always stay away from nailing or screwing at the end of oak as it will split. I usually never screw or nail from the end any closer than 1 inch. I had the cabinet maker make the spice cabinet and cut out the shelves.