Now, (if you are still with me), comes the fun part, -fitting them together to serve your needs and fit your home.  For example, do you want to be able to show your guests your collection?  How about some end tables?      

Or put two CUBES side-by-side in front of your couch and a nice piece of wood on top, and you have a table to hold your collection, coffee, and snooty art books.     

Or do you need a custom built desk?    

Do you have a good spacious workbench for your hobby?

Maybe you have this closet......

But perhaps the best use for these cases is to simply fit them into you home wherever and however.

In the bedroom....                In the kitchen.....           In the living room....

SAFETY FINE PRINT:
Your house was almost assuredly build with things 16 inches apart.  Maybe 24 inches, but more likely the lumber that is in your walls, under your feet, and over your head is a bunch of variously sized boards 16 inches apart.   You will notice that all of the above are either 16 or 24 inches wide, -or 32 inches wide, but this is just 2 times 16.  This is so they can fit into your home, and be firmly bolted to your walls.  This in turn allows you to stack them up into stout and safe cabinets and counters.  As to safety, -you MUST do things right if you do built-ins and/or stack things up to any height.  Have a look at Making Desks and Work Surfaces with Modular Drawer Cases.   If you have any doubt about your own abilities, check out Hiring Carpenters and Other Useful Things.

To resume, the very best difference between your kitchen cabinets and my drawer cases is that you can swap the drawers around and change drawer sizes as your collection grows and changes.

SELECTING DRAWERS is the next step:

For example, lets suppose you collect those little pins that they sell or give away at tennis tournaments.  A case with 10 shallow drawers would serve your needs very well indeed.  (This case is the 16 inch 'cube.')

But now you decide you want to collect tennis balls as well.  You can pull out 4 shallow drawers and replace them with 2 medium drawers.  

Taken a step farther, you now decide you want to pilfer shoes from master players and add them to your collection.  (Don't know why you would want to do so, but you get the idea.)  So now you pull out a medium drawer and a shallow one, replace the two of them with a single deep drawer, and you are all set.  What do you do with the drawers you removed?

You start another case of course.  

And this, ladies and gentleman, is how Home Museums happen. 

 

All this means that if you collect the smallest items, you want lots of flat drawers.  For example, As many as ....

  10 #1 drawers fit into the CUBE ,   WIDE , and    EXTRA WIDE cases, OR  15 drawers fit into the TALL and LARGE cases,  OR  a whopping 21 drawers for the EXTRA TALL case.  

Using the CUBE as an example, it can have ten #1 drawers  , OR it can have five #2 drawers ,  OR three #3 and one #1 drawers OR  it can even be like the SPECIALS above with one #3, two #2's, and three #1's AND  you can do it all with the same case, even after  it is installed as a desk, or counter, or whatever else you want.

As a final complication -and I think it's worthwhile complication- I also make drawers I call...CHEATERS:

Basically, a Cheater is a drawer with an oversize drawer front or 'face" that covers the top of the case.   

Looks like this.   Notice that the desk top, (or counter top or bench top or whatever), in this picture is a solid slab, -for example a door blank and the top drawer's face is oversized to cover the case..  

Compare it to this side view, where the desk-top is a thinner material (3/4 inch) trimmed with solid wood edging.  This edging covers the top of the drawer case and so there is no need for special, "Cheater" drawer faces.

Cheaters also can cover the bottom of the case as well as the top.  If, for example, you put your case directly on the floor, you probably will not want to use a Cheater.  This is particularly so if you put if on carpet, -the drawer might not even open.

On the other hand, if you put the case (or cases) up on a simple toe-kick,    the problem of interference is eliminated and a Cheater is just the ticket.

A Paper Design Worksheet / Planning Tool:

Sometimes, simplest ways are the best.  What we have here is literally a 'cut and paste' worksheet.  There are both a template to easily lay out the walls in your room, and sheets that have scale elevations of each possible drawer or display case.  You make some measurements, sketch out your room, and cut out the appropriate cases.  Then comes the fun part -you can lay out a scale plan of what your Home-Museum could eventually look like.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:    Sort of a Do-It-Yourself reading list.

Making Desks and Drawers with Modular Cases

A soup-to-nuts explanation on how to actually go about building your own Home Museum.  (It's a longish article, give it a minute to load.)

Furniture and Built-In Ideas

No words, -just pictures to give you ideas for your own dream rooms. (Use your Go-Back button to come back here.)