Custom Cabinetry, for Free

Custom cabinetry, for free? Sure! With the advent of cheap, flat-packed furniture from stores like Ikea, there is almost always great raw materials in the trash which can be repurposed into custom furniture. Ikea fancies itself as an environmnetal steward, but cheap furnature also means people have no qualms about throwing it away.

I've been thinking of building a custom cabinet for my apartment and have been on the look out for some good material. I found an Ikea wardrobe cabinet in the trash last week and grabbed it. I took it apart and saved the laminated particleboard. After removing the hardware, I cut the pieces to size. This is a custom piece, so I designed the cabinet to fit a specific space. Particle board is flat, stable and easy to cut. Measure twice, cut once!
The boards were secured to each other using dry wall screws. Pilot holes are necessary to get through the lamination. The cabinet was very easy to assemble.
For structural integrity, I tacked a backing sheet to the rear of the cabinet. This will keep the cabinet square and will make it a lot stronger. The boards weren't quite wide enough, leaving a gap in the middle (hey it's free material) but I patched that with a spare piece. No one will see it as it's on the back of the cabinet.
Then I primed, painted and installed the cabinet. It's a nice looking custom shelf! The only thing I paid for was screws and paint!