Dan Tappo’s seven-year-old son has a “mini-museum” of curios he’s collected (“rocks, fossils, marbles, old film canisters”). For Christmas, Dan’s built him a secret display cabinet hidden behind a false-front bookcase. He built a set of cheap Ikea shelves, fit hinged doors to it, and then surfaced them with sliced-off book-spines from old discards. Great maker parenting, Dan!
* On the sides at the front, attach two pieces of planed timber. You’ll be hinging the ‘bookcase’ doors onto this timber because the Expedit doesn’t have the structural integrity to hold the hinges (at least I assumed it didn’t). The timber I used was 34mmx34mm. I used that size only because the hardware store I went to had a bolt-screw that was exactly 34mm longer than the screw that comes with the Expedit unit. This meant I could screw through the timber into the Expedit and hold it together exactly as securely as normal. I then painted the timber white.
* The book case doors are 12mm MDF painted white (although timber would be better and a bit thinner better again). The ‘bookcase edges’ are planed timber 25mm x 25mm and then shelves are 25mm x 15mm. I cut all the pieces to size first – the doors, then the bookcase parts and then the books. I nailed the bookcase into place from the book and as for the books, I just cut them on a bandsaw and then glued them into place.
* I used 3 hinges per side to hang the doors but that was overkill – 2 would have been fine.
