DIY furniture from laminated chipboard: drawings, assembly diagrams

The cost of furnishings directly depends on the material they are made from. Laminated chipboards are widely used in furniture production - the products are inexpensive, have a wide range of models and a variety of shades and textures.

To increase strength, moisture resistance and decorativeness, particle boards are covered with a laminated front layer in the form of a film based on melamine resins.

You can make furniture with your own hands from laminated chipboard, but it is worth considering that if you cut it yourself, you can get chips on the front surface. Experts recommend making a drawing of the future product and ordering cutting of parts in a store or furniture workshop using special equipment.

DIY furniture from laminated chipboard

Features of the material

Laminated chipboard contains natural wood - in structure it is chipboards that have undergone high-quality sanding and covered with melamine film. It is this coating that distinguishes the two types of slabs. Laminated chipboard has high moisture resistance and greater strength than conventional boards.

The laminated surface exhibits greater resistance to mechanical influences, as well as to chemically active substances - acetone, gasoline, alcohol, acids, solvents, coffee. Therefore, furniture made from chipboard can often be found in public places: in reception areas, in offices, in multifunctional centers, in educational institutions, in cafes, in kindergartens, in playrooms and children's rooms, in the kitchen.

The advantage of the material is the variety of its shades and textures

The film not only gives the material excellent performance characteristics, but also allows you to give it a unique appearance - from any shades and textures of natural wood, to images applied according to individual sketches. The ability to choose any shade allows you to produce cabinet furniture for any interior. This is especially true for children's rooms, where bright, rich colors are welcome. Bright furniture is also used for advertising and trade stands, as a body for reception desks with the possibility of being manufactured in the company’s colors with a logo.

Multifunctional cabinet furniture

Note! The laminated layer makes the surface of the chipboard monolithic and does not allow harmful substances that may be contained inside its structure to pass through.

The formation of the laminated layer occurs by pressing paper, which acquires properties comparable to plastic, filled with melamine resin under pressure (up to 28 MPa) and high temperature (up to 210 degrees). Decorative paper impregnated with resin is pressed into the top layer of chipboard.

The surface of such a plate, among other things, is heat-resistant, which allows you to place hot dishes on it - this has made laminated chipboard a popular material for making kitchen countertops.

Cutting laminated chipboard

Main assembly steps

Before making furniture, prepare a drawing of the future product. It is necessary to once again check the dimensions of the cabinet schematically marked on paper with the proportions of the prepared parts.

1. Mark the extra centimeters of the laminated chipboard panels using a simple pencil, saw off along the lines with a wood hacksaw, clean the edges and cover them with an edge.
2. Attach the side, bottom and top panels to the rear panel using a screwdriver and self-tapping screws.
3. Before hanging the doors, mark the locations for the hinges. If the sashes are heavy, increase the number of fasteners, otherwise over time the panels may warp under their own weight. The distance from the edge to the bottom and top loops should not be less than 12-13 cm.
4. Fasten the hinges and check the operation of the doors. They should fit tightly, without gaps or displacements. Don't forget to embed the mini-lock.
5. For a cabinet with sliding doors, you should choose a roller mechanism that will be located at the top and bottom of the panels. Most often, aluminum elements are used for this.
6. If legs are intended, then they need to be made before hanging the doors. After assembling cabinet furniture with your own hands is completed, check the stability of the structure, how level the cabinet is and whether it “sinks” to one side or another.
7. Using self-tapping screws and strips, make supports for the shelves. The latter are adjusted to size after assembling the cabinet body. Special holders are sold for glass shelves that will not damage the base.
8. It is better to equip drawers (if any) with guides, then they will slide out easily and freely, without the possibility of warping and getting stuck.

The selected material - chipboard, chipboard or solid wood panels - must be properly processed

When making cabinet furniture, pay attention to the fact that laminated chipboard may crumble during insertion of fasteners. The material requires accuracy and precision in outlines and actions.

Drying time is required after each coat is applied.

Pros and cons of using laminated chipboard for making furniture

The advantages of laminated chipboard include the following:

1. Low cost.
2. Easy processing.
3. Ability to cut parts of any shape.
4. The presence of a safe edge at the ends.
5. The ability to create furniture with rounded corners, which is especially important for children's furniture.
6. Excellent performance properties: mechanical, thermal, chemical resistance, moisture resistance.
7. Preservation of operational properties throughout the entire life of the furniture.
8. Wide range of colors.
9. Easy care, possibility of daily wet treatment.

The laminating layer protects the boards from the negative effects of moisture, which makes it possible to make furniture from them for rooms with high humidity.

Kitchen set made of laminated chipboard

The disadvantages of laminated chipboards include the fact that they contain formaldehyde, however, the laminating layer and the sealed edge at the ends of the furniture completely neutralize the release of harmful substances into the environment. The edge also protects the slabs from moisture, which can cause them to swell.

Edge

As noted earlier, any part made of laminated chipboard must have an edge that will protect the material from moisture and the environment from the harmful effects of formaldehyde. Having a drawing of the product in hand, you can order sawing and edging from a specialized company that has special equipment. In the future, you can assemble the finished product yourself.

Melamine edge

Table 1. Types of edges

Selection of tools and accessories for them

If you are going to make an interior design element such as cabinet furniture with your own hands, be sure to watch the video of this process. The fact is that it is not always clear why this or that tool is needed. By visualizing the scope of its use, you will quickly make a decision to purchase it.

Tape measure for taking measurements

As for the class of the purchased tool, a semi-professional one will be quite sufficient for everyday use, which is relatively inexpensive and provides acceptable quality of the work performed. By the way, in addition to purchasing, there is also the option of renting an instrument. In this case, in any case, you will need to purchase a screwdriver or drill, without which it is impossible to assemble cabinet furniture.

A set of magnetic bits for working with screws in hard-to-reach places

As for other tools and accessories for them, when performing work you will definitely need:

• three-meter tape measure for taking measurements;
• drills for wood and metal of various sizes up to sixteenth inclusive;
• a set of magnetic bits for working with screws in hard-to-reach places;
• an awl for punching holes in wood;
• set of hex keys;
• Screwdriver Set;
• jigsaw

Many manuals that explain how to assemble cabinet furniture with your own hands recommend that, at the same time as purchasing tools, you also purchase cabinet furniture fittings. This is due to the fact that many fittings can be installed in place using only special keys. Naturally, it makes sense to purchase such keys in advance.

Awl for punching holes in wood

Something to remember! Furniture fittings include door handles, hinges, drawer guides, shelf holders and other furniture design elements.

Their main task is to ensure the operation of doors, shelves, drawers and other components of the same wardrobe. Moreover, the better the quality of the fittings used, the more convenient it will be to use the furniture.

Drills for wood and metal of various sizes up to sixteenth inclusive

When purchasing accessories, you must give preference to proven European brands. The fact is that Asian companies often use silumin for the production of fittings. As a result, it fails very quickly, which is fraught with loss of functionality of the same cabinet.

When purchasing accessories, you must give preference to proven European brands

In any case, these design elements of modular furniture should be integrated into its design as much as possible. To do this, it is necessary to select one or another type of fittings at the stage of creating the project. It must be adhered to and replaced only in special cases.

Types of laminated chipboard structures

The use of laminated chipboard is widespread in various industries, one of which is furniture production. Laminated chipboard is used not only for the manufacture of simple furnishings, but also multifunctional furniture structures.

Kitchen set in modern style

Manufacturing of facades

The material from which the visible parts of the furniture are made, forming its decorative appearance - facades, must have an aesthetic appearance, match the style and color scheme of the interior, and also be moisture- and wear-resistant. If you need to make a drawer inside the cabinet, you can use a simpler material - 16 mm thick laminated chipboard with a 2 mm PVC edge. If this is the façade of a kitchen unit, then it must be made of beautiful and reliable material.

Minimalist facade of a kitchen unit made of laminated chipboard

The size of the standard facade is 2 mm smaller than the cabinet dimensions on each side. That is, if the cabinet is 60 cm wide, then the front will be 59.6 cm wide.

Dependence of furniture parameters and human anthropometric data

Kitchen furniture, first of all, should be ergonomic - convenient, comfortable and safe to use. Thus, floor and low wall cabinets have a height of 71.5 - 72.5 cm (it is worth taking into account the height from the floor to the top of the tabletop - at least 82 cm), and high wall cabinets - 91.5 - 92.5 cm. When manufacturing furniture according to an individual drawing, the anthropometric data of the apartment owner are taken into account when developing the latter.

Basic parameters of the kitchen set

Laminated chipboard facades differ from MDF in that it is not possible to create a relief pattern on their surface. However, this material is perfectly used to create sets in a modern style, the appearance of which requires minimal decor and conciseness. You can increase the decorativeness of the set by using fittings and inserts made of colored or embossed glass.

How to make a kitchen set yourself, what designs are the most convenient and reliable? More details in a special article.

Hidden elements – bottom and walls

To make the back wall of the box and its bottom, laminated fiberboards with a thickness of 3 to 5 mm are used. Their shade is selected to match the color of the chipboard used and fixed with the smooth side inward.

LDVP

Fastening LDVP is most often done using nails or self-tapping screws with a press washer. To prevent the plate from cracking, you must first make a hole for the screw and only then screw it in. When making drawers, a sheet of HDF can be fixed into a groove.

If it is necessary to increase the load-bearing capacity of the product, then the bottom is made of laminated chipboard.

Manufacturing of countertops

A horizontal work plane intended for preparing and eating food, performing activities related to reading books, writing, drawing, using a computer is called a tabletop.

Edge cutting

To design the working surface of the kitchen set, special laminated chipboards with a thickness of 28 to 38 mm, characterized by increased moisture resistance, are used. On their surface there is durable plastic, which is fixed using the “postforming” technology.

This technology consists of lining a chipboard slab with thin-thick laminated paper plastic under pressure and exposure to a temperature of 90 or 180 degrees. The difference is that in the first case, the slab is covered with plastic on the main side and at the ends, and silicone sealant is used to treat the joint of the coating.

Drip evacuation

In the second case (at a temperature of 180 degrees), the plastic completely covers the stove, going around the end of the tabletop, and sticks to it from the bottom, forming a drip tray. This is an important detail that protects the inside of the stove from moisture.

Note! For the manufacture of kitchen countertops, moisture-resistant chipboards are used - they are green when cut.

The most vulnerable point of a laminated chipboard kitchen countertop is the end cut, which must be hidden. In conditions of high humidity and intense operating load, a regular melamine edge will quickly cease to cope with its task. Therefore, aluminum end strips are used to protect the ends of kitchen worktops. There are also corner and connecting strips used to connect several modules that form a single tabletop - they cover the joints, protecting them from dirt and moisture.

Types of aluminum strips

Also, for protective and decorative purposes, a special plinth is used at the junction of the table top with the wall, when a decorative element of the required shade is attached to the guide.

From below, the tabletop is fixed to the floor cabinets using short self-tapping screws and horizontal spacers - this allows you to maintain the integrity of the smooth front surface.

Method of fixing the tabletop

Manufacturing of sliding doors

The sliding wardrobe is very popular - this method of opening the door allows you to save free space, which is important for small rooms. There are many models of sliding wardrobes: straight, five-walled, corner, trapezoidal, radius. Also, the main difference lies in the type of construction - stationary or built-in. In the first case, the cabinet is a box with two side walls and a back wall. In the second case, the side walls may be absent if the cabinet is built into a niche. If it is built into a corner, then you can dispense with one side wall. In this case, part of the load is distributed to the walls.

Basic elements of a wardrobe

The main element of such a cabinet is a sliding door, which, when opened, moves using rollers along guides. A sheet of laminated chipboard is inserted into a profiled frame; to achieve a decorative effect, it can be combined with other materials, separating them using an aluminum profile. The width of one door should not exceed 1 m.

Operating principle of roller guides

The guides along which the canvas moves are installed from below and from above. The upper guide is needed to fix the blade, and the lower one is needed for its smooth movement.

Plastic is used to make the lower rollers. The device is equipped with a shock-absorbing spring and an adjustment screw for adjusting the height. The upper rollers have a rubberized surface.

Accessories for sliding doors

In a special article, we will look at the advantages of sliding wardrobes, the main nuances of their installation, and give detailed instructions on how to independently assemble a spacious wardrobe for a small hallway.

Video - Stages of assembling a sliding door at home

Making a drawer

A drawer is a convenient storage element, which is present in cabinet furniture models made from chipboard for any purpose - in a kitchen set, in a desk and office cabinet, in a closet, at the bottom of a bed.

Chipboard chest of drawers with drawers on roller guides

The main element of the design is the guide, which ensures smooth opening of the drawer. There are two types of guides: roller and ball.

The roller guides are fixed to the bottom of the box. Movement occurs using rollers. The peculiarity is that the drawer will not extend completely. If it is heavy, then there is a risk of the drawer falling out when it is opened more than halfway.

The situation is different with ball guides, which allow you to safely pull out the drawer to its full length, while the structure moves smoothly and there is no risk of it falling out.

Ball guides

Table 2. How to assemble a simple roll-out box on roller guides

What can you do at home?

Anyone can make beautiful crafts from plywood with their own hands, and for this you do not need to have a lot of tools or be a professional carpenter. The most important thing is to choose ready-made drawings of furniture or draw it yourself, as this is the basis of any product. With the help of the diagram, you will not only be able to avoid mistakes in work, but also easily calculate the required amount of material.

The tools you will need are a jigsaw, a screwdriver that can be used as a drill, a tape measure, a pencil and a corner. A sanding machine, file or sandpaper will come in handy to slightly smooth the end parts of the furniture.

Not just any plywood is suitable for the job, because if you want your plywood products to be beautiful and durable, then the original material must have the same properties. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the top coating and the gluing method used in manufacturing, since the strength and resistance of plywood to negative influences mainly depends on this. In addition, the thickness of the plywood must also be suitable for the planned product.

The main advantage of plywood furniture is that it is durable and lightweight. In addition, unlike wooden boards or panels, it can be easily bent and given almost any shape, so it is excellent for making designer furniture.

If you want to make furniture from plywood with your own hands, then you do not need to start with complex products; it is best to start with a stool, shelf or flower stand. In this case, you will not need many tools or special skills in the work. You will simply get acquainted with the material and how plywood furniture is made. Once you have more experience, you can start making complex crafts that can decorate your interior.

Making furniture with your own hands from plywood is not difficult, you just need to show a little patience and effort. The most important thing is not to rush, slowly but surely you will still ensure that your products become neat and practical.

Nuances of assembling the main parts

Cabinet furniture made from laminated chipboard consists of individual elements - lids, tabletops, walls, facades, shelves, which are called parts. Parts can be nested or overlaid depending on the type of assembly, which is chosen based on the upcoming loads. The service life of the structure and its safety depend on this.

So, in a floor-standing cabinet, the load is distributed from top to bottom - from the lid towards the legs, as shown in the first “correct” picture. The lid and bottom of the cabinet are overhead. If they are fixed in a nested manner, as shown in the second figure, then the correct distribution of the load will be hampered by a confirmat - a furniture screw, which will sooner or later pull out under tension, and the part itself will receive damage, which can only be eliminated by completely replacing the element.

Features of fixing parts in the manufacture of a floor cabinet

The situation is different with a wall cabinet. The load falls on the bottom shelf and if it is fixed in an overhead way, then sooner or later the tension screws will tear out and the bottom of the drawer will collapse. Here it is better to fix it using a nested method, when screws screwed in perpendicularly will resist the load.

Features of fixing parts in the manufacture of wall cabinets

General rules for assembling cabinet furniture

To assemble a cabinet or chest of drawers, you must first calculate the parameters of the future product. To make cabinet furniture with your own hands, the first thing you need to do is make a drawing with the dimensions of all the parts.

Before making furniture, prepare a drawing of the future product.

You also need to determine what material you will use during assembly. Depending on this, fasteners, tools and auxiliary arsenal (sandpaper, etc.) are selected.

You also need to determine what material you will use during assembly.

Wood as a material can be “capricious”; it is important to choose high-quality boards with a good, even texture, dried and processed. Birch, poplar, maple, aspen and other hardwoods are suitable. Conifers require special conditions, so pine or spruce must be selected in combination with some other variety. Try not to select layered rocks so that the base does not split during processing.

When making cabinet furniture, pay attention to the fact that laminated chipboard may crumble during insertion of fasteners.

Do-it-yourself cabinet furniture can be made of chipboard, MDF or laminated chipboard (the latter option is the most common). These materials are processed differently.

The material requires accuracy and precision in outlines and actions.

All details of the future cabinet must be carefully checked against the drawings and carefully adjusted to the intended dimensions.

Wood as a material can be “capricious”; it is important to choose high-quality boards with a good, even texture, dried and processed.

A specialized store will help you make adjustments (trimming). This can also be done using a ruler, pencil and a wood saw at home.

If desired, you can improve the appearance with original inserts.

Chipboard panels must be coated with a protective compound - this will reduce the risk of evaporation of resinous substances. Other materials do not require this approach.

Do-it-yourself cabinet furniture can be made of chipboard, MDF or laminated chipboard (the latter option is the most common).

Types of fasteners

Modern fasteners that are used when assembling furniture ensure the strength and durability of the structure, as well as its aesthetic appearance, since parts are fixed in a hidden way whenever possible, and those fasteners that remain outside are masked using special plastic linings to match the furniture .

Table 3. Types of fasteners

Furniture assembly options

In this case, there are two options to choose from. Option one is to use the services of a professional master assembler who will assemble any furniture of varying complexity.

The second option involves carrying out assembly work on your own, however, in order to perform high-quality furniture assembly, you need to have a general understanding of assembly, and you may also encounter certain difficulties.

Of course, each option has its pros and cons, for example, if you trust specialists, this will require certain financial costs, only in this case you will be able to save your time.

But, if you decide to do the assembly work on your own, it will take you a lot of time and effort, but in this case you will not have to pay the craftsmen for the work.

Thus, this material can serve as an approximate training material for those who decide to do the assembly themselves.

In other words, this material is to a certain extent like instructions for the correct assembly of furniture.

It should be noted that the process of assembling furniture is very complex and labor-intensive, requiring a lot of attention and patience.

Selection of furniture fittings

In addition to fastening elements, there are other furniture fittings, without which the product will lose its decorative and functional qualities.

Table 4. Types of furniture fittings

Video – Furniture fittings

How to assemble a cabinet from chipboard with your own hands

Even a beginner can assemble a simple cabinet; to do this, you need to follow the following steps sequentially.

Table 5. Instructions for assembling the cabinet

Making furniture drawings with your own hands: general overview

Hello dear friends.

Today we will talk about such, at first glance, a simple thing as making drawings.

What exactly are they, and what information do they carry?

And they are an image of furniture (in projections) with overall and main dimensions indicated.

Based on these drawings, all the details of the future product are calculated.

It can be calculated either manually or using special programs (for furniture makers).

In other words, the furniture drawing is the source material for calculating the entire project (a project is a package of “documents” on the basis of which the furniture in question can be manufactured, assembled and installed).

What are the drawings for? We figured it out.

Now let's talk about how to make them?

And making a drawing is not as easy as it seems at first glance (I’m already repeating myself, but this is actually true).

To create a drawing you need:

• Know the dimensions of the room (or part of the room) where the furniture is planned (in some cases, this is not required, for example, when you just need to make a chest of drawers of a certain size that will not be associated with the nuances of a certain room).
• Understand the size of the gaps (in the case of built-in furniture, for example, a kitchen set) that must be given for the overall dimensions of the product.
• Understand the dimensions of the designed modules in accordance with the built-in fittings (for example, the same built-in guides for drawers).
• Correctly design the design of the product to ensure its maximum rigidity (sizes of modules, presence of stiffeners).
• Take into account the dimensions of the components (parts) of the product relative to the dimensions of the sheet material from which these parts will be made (so that it does not turn out that, for example, the designed side of a sliding wardrobe will be larger than the dimensions of the sheet of material from which it should be made).
• Understand the geometry of some parts (for example, the facade, which is attached to the frame on hinges, must have a height greater than the width, in order to avoid unnecessary load on these hinges).
• Regarding the overall dimensions of the entire structure, you also need to understand its stability (for example, if the structure is tall and narrow, it will not be stable). In the case of low stability, you need to be able to plan options for attaching such a structure to the wall (as, for example, shown in this article).
• Understand what dimensions furniture niches should have in order to plan drawers in them (there is no point in planning drawers that are too small (in width), just as there is no point in planning drawers that are too large, for a number of reasons...).

Here are the main points of making, so to speak, a semi-finished product for making a project - a drawing.

Now let's look at all of the above with a simple example:

Let's make a drawing of a chest of drawers.

Let us automatically leave out the first two points listed above (they are discussed in articles on designing kitchen units), since, usually, the dimensions of a chest of drawers are immediately determined “by eye”.

Let our future product have the following overall dimensions:

• Width – 1200mm
• Height – 832mm
• Depth – 500mm

And let it consist not only of drawers, but also of modules with hinged doors.

These will be three independent modules that will be installed on a common base and covered with a common cover on top (the dimensions of the cover and base will be the same, and their width will be equal to the total width of these three modules).

Therefore, we will give a box with drawers (width) - 600mm (just the normal size for such a module).

It turns out that there will be 300mm left on the outer boxes (those with drawers) (also quite normal).

We figured out the width.

Now let's "estimate" the depth:

The overall depth “along the cover” is 500mm.

If you “fill in” the facades from the same material from which the chest of drawers itself will be made (let it be laminated chipboard, 16mm thick), then it makes sense to make the module boxes 20mm (according to the thickness of the facades) less than the depth of the lid.

It turns out that the width of the sides of the modules will be equal to:

500-20=480 (mm).

Now you need to figure out whether this depth is enough so that a stiffener and a 450mm guide can be installed in the box:

480-16-450=14 (mm), where: 16mm is the thickness of the stiffener (it will be installed in a module with drawers), 450mm is the size of the guide, and 14mm is the gap between the drawer (the depth of which will be equal to the depth of the guide) and stiffening rib.

It turns out that the overall depth of the chest of drawers (according to its lid) also fits normally.

Well, the height...

In such cases, the height is usually looked at from the point of view of the stability of the structure.

With a height of 832mm and a depth of 500mm, the structure will have “satisfactory” stability. So, the height can also be left unchanged.

Only now, after determining the dimensions and checking them for compliance with the built-in fittings, module sizes, general stability (see the list presented above), you can draw up a drawing (it is presented above).

And based on this drawing, all the details of this product will be calculated.

In these calculations, there is another fundamental value - the thickness of the material (in this case, as mentioned above, it is 16 mm).

Operating with this value, almost all calculations will be made.

Now we can “draw” a general drawing of the product, from which we can make drawings of its components (three modules), from which, subsequently, we can calculate all the detailing.

Here is a simple mechanism for drawing up a drawing of furniture that we will make with our own hands.

In conclusion, I will say that, in practice, for beginners, sometimes everything works out, not as simple as described in this article.

They often lose sight of something (why are novices, and seasoned furniture makers sometimes make mistakes, they are also real people).

Therefore, if you have a desire to make some serious furniture yourself (kitchen set, wardrobe, bedroom set, etc.), and you are afraid of making mistakes in the calculations (and these mistakes, as a rule, cost the most) - in this case , there is online furniture design.

This option will save you from mistakes and provide you with a high-quality furniture project that you want to make with your own hands.

Well, I’ll end here.

We wish you beautiful and high-quality furniture!

See you.