As a world-class penny pincher, I’ve found that stock cabinets are the key to low-cost, good-quality DIY furniture. I get handsome, sturdy, real-wood furniture for the cost of assemble-it-yourself pieces sold at discount stores.


And the advantages go way beyond saving money. Cabinets make furniture building incredibly quick and easy by eliminating the difficult, fussy process of building and hanging doors.


In the following pages, I’ll show you how to build three weekend furniture projects. Along the way, you’ll see different methods of covering the sides and tops of cabinets and adding legs, feet or a base. You can mix and match these various approaches to build your own furniture with the look and function you want.


Used cabinets from remodeling jobs are my first choice for furniture projects (they’re free!). I also like damaged cabinets from the local salvage store (cheap!). The trouble with these tightwad options is that the cabinets are already finished, and finishing raw wood to match the factory finish is tough. 


To get around this, I’ve painted the furniture or stained the new wood surrounding the cabinets a contrasting color for a two-tone look. When neither paint nor a two-tone look is suitable, I buy unfinished stock cabinets like the ones shown in this article. 


Home centers usually carry one style only and one wood species only (typically oak). For the projects shown here, I used 12-in.-deep “upper” cabinets. The cabinets you find may not be exactly like mine, so you may have to alter the measurements given in my plans.


Originally writen by familyhandyman and most pictures collected from pinterest