Long, low chest of drawers (TV cabinet), by Henk

In this DIY project, Henk shows how he made a TV cabinet himself. By having the MDF cut to size, he could immediately start working on the project! He even made the drawers himself and installed them in the cupboard. The result is beautiful. Read more about this project and Henk's approach below.

Description from Henk

According to an interior designer, a 4-meter-long low chest of drawers as a TV stand along a long wall would create a strong visual effect. Such furniture is not commercially available, so get started yourself! I made the furniture from 38 mm MDF for the top and the uprights on which this top rests. The four drawers are made of 18 mm MDF and equipped with fully extendable guide rails that are equipped with ball bearings. This makes the drawers run very smoothly.

How I made this project

The cabinet is 400.0 cm long, 40.0 cm high and 50.0 cm deep. Due to its length it was necessary to make the cabinet in two parts that were later put together. The middle upright was crucial here. This upright was always kept separate from the rest and only mounted when the cabinet was finally installed. In the meantime, this upright was secured with glue clamps to test whether everything would fit properly. Important points to note are:

1. The distance between the front of the drawer and the cabinet is 5 mm on both sides and top. At the bottom this distance is 10 mm (to prevent jamming on the floor).
2. The drawer front extends 8 mm beyond the interior of the drawer on both sides. This has created a space per side of 13 mm (8 mm + 5 mm space from point 1). This 13 mm per side is necessary to have room for the guide rails that require 12.7 mm of space. The 0.3 mm is used as a margin for, among other things, deviations, primer and topcoat. In practice this worked out perfectly. The guide rails were purchased from Schreuder & Co in Dordrecht, type: telescopic guide 53131 - 450 mm.
3. For joining the 2 equal cabinet parts, there is a beam of 4.0 x 4.0 cm on the bottom of both top parts mounted, 19 mm from the end of both top parts. This 38mm (2 x 19mm) space allowed the center support to be easily attached by screws from either side of the beams. An additional effect of this was that the top parts were firmly pulled together.
4. The cabinet and drawers were primed twice, but the end sides of the MDF were primed 4 times due to the strong absorbent effect. . After joining the parts, filler was used to make the transition invisible. The cabinet was then varnished twice.

Dimensions of my DIY project

The external dimensions are 400.0 cm long, 40.0 cm high and 50.0 cm deep.