DIY Corner Cabinet For Dining Room Tutorial

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I've been slowly decorating my mom's house over the past two years. When I say slowly, it's been happening very slowly, sadly. I wish I had more time to focus there! I made her built-ins two years ago, and a few pieces of furniture. Our next big project was adding floor to ceiling board and batten throughout her house. With that on hold, mainly because of time hasn't been allotted for it on my end, I decided to make her a cute corner cabinet she has been wanting. This cabinet added the perfect character into her white and boring builder grade home. 

I used the tutorial from Ana White and like most of her plans, I made it my own. You can find the fuller detailed version with all the plans on her site here. I'll be sharing with you how I adjusted mine to fit my needs for the space. First was making it taller, 8 feet tall. Most corner cabinets seem to pretty short and I wanted this to fill up the space more. This meant adding an extra shelf to the original plans.

For the back end, I used a 1x8 since I wanted to make it more narrow. I have 6 shelves total, 4 exposed and two behind the doors. Each shelf is 29" wide at it's widest part.

The distance between the shelves is approximately 16.5" with the exposed shelves, and 14" with the bottom two. The "tabletop" shelf is at 29.5" high. This is the shelf that sits right above the door.

I secured each shelf to the 1x8 back (8 feet tall) with my pocket jig and screws. I used 1x3s for the front trim and secured it to the shelving.

I then cut my beadboard the width of both sides, approximately 15.75". To cut it I used my fave ultra saw by Dremel. I secured the beadboard to the shelves.

I built the doors using 1x4s. Using my pocket hole jig, I secured the pieces together. The doors are 14" wide and 26" high.

I then added some scrap bead board onto the back of each one. I secured it with some brad nails. 

To finish off the top, I added some decorating molding cut at a 45 degree angle on both sides. 

I painted the entire piece Swiss Coffee by Behr in Satin. After painting, I then filled in the cracks with some light weight spackling compound. 

I added the doors to the bottom with hinges on the outside to give a more farmhouse look. 

Here's a closer look at the molding I chose to use for the top.

I love how tall this ended up being. Almost too tall to handle :) Talking about handles, I also added two distressed white ones to the doors below. I found these at Hobby Lobby. They have a great assortment of knobs and pulls to pick from.

When placing this in the corner, I made sure to secure it to the studs in the wall from the top. It's so tall, I was definitely worried about it toppling over :) ...and you don't want that!

Having the extra shelves to play and decorate are such a bonus. 

The area behind the door is the perfect place to store cookbooks and the things that aren't as pretty that you want to keep out of site.

I love how this piece helped to add so much character into this dining room. This space was pretty boring before. I decorated it quickly when she first moved in, and then left it at that. As with most areas in homes, getting it just right takes time and planning. And truthfully, you really don't know what you want until you have lived there for a little bit.  

The best part of this is having another fun place to decorate! 

To decorate these shelves, I went with a mixture of new and old. We found most of these pieces from Hobby Lobby and added in the antique scale and book. With the neutral colors, I wanted to add in pops of green with the faux hanging plants.

We have one more update happening in this room next week. It's a small change, but one that will bring more character too. I'm excited to get my foot healed up and start adding the board and batten in here also! 

Here's a before picture of this space. It's coming along slowly!

As I mentioned up above, if you would like the full detailed tutorial on how to make this, Ana White does such a better job at it than I ever would :) Please go check it out! 

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”