Here’s a cabinet that I built for my campervan. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’ve built a bunch of random things out of wood but this is what I would consider to be the first nice piece of furniture that I’ve made.

Construction: Frame is made from 2x2 redwood joined with pocket screws. Slots were routed in the frame pieces to accept 1/4” baltic birch panels. Top is 1x4 redwood slats. Finished with three coats of water based Varathane satin poly.

My thoughts on the process:

When I added it up the materials cost surprised me. Redwood is supposed to be relatively cheap but I ended up paying about the same per board foot for the dimensional lumber as I would have for nice hardwood from my local supplier. And the baltic birch was in the price range of some exotic hardwoods. Guess I need to get a table saw and planer.

Getting doors and hinges and latches aligned properly is a huge struggle. I was able to make some adjustments to my imperfect pilot holes with some aggressive slant drilling but I think that only kinda worked because the redwood is so soft. I did use self centering hinge bits but the hinge (and bit) would shift a bit when the bit entered the wood. Maybe bad technique?

I wasn’t able to sand the baltic birch completely flat. It still had these tiny voids. Maybe I should have used wood filler to prevent?

I had a happy accident with the top slats. They got rained on after sanding and ended up having a nice strong raised grain that remained after drying out in the sun. I really like the natural feeling texture.

I shoulda routed an inset so the shelves would fit flush. Next time.

I give up trying to research the ‘best’ way to put on a finish. I guess I gotta just experiment and come up with own process which I will later share in comment threads to further add to the confusion. For what it’s worth I slightly preferred the Zar satin finish I put on my birch(premcore not baltic) plywood floors to the Varathane satin. It had more clarity but maybe it was because it was slightly glossier.