Who didn't play with boxes as a child?  How many times have you watched as a long sought after toy is discarded in favor of the box it came in by your own children? As adults the only time we play with boxes is when we're enlisted to push our kids across the floor in the box the new refrigerator came in.  Why should our kids have all the fun? Our customers are constantly telling us about the fun and creative things they have done with our cabinets, so when we sat down to design a showroom for our newest product we decided to have some fun playing with boxes too.
 
A showroom for our new Cerise Shaker cabinets should be a kitchen or a bathroom, right? Where's the fun in that? Yes - designing a new kitchen or bathroom is fun but designing a home office using kitchen and bathroom cabinets is more fun.    

Concept to Design - Design to Reality

Other than the Bamboo countertop (which can be custom ordered) we used only standard off-the-shelf RTA Cabinet products to create a unique and inviting space with a contemporary feel. The home office/private space is about 10' by 14', and consists of three parts - the Big Wall Unit, the Small Wall Unit and the Desk.

The Desk.  We took two 15" base cabinets DB15 ($236.50) and used one of  the bamboo counter tops for the desk top. We cut off the toe kick portion of the Drawer Base Cabinets and added industrial rubber swivel wheels from Home Depot  ($3.96). The wheels have stoppers, allowing for easy movement of the desk as well as the ability to lock it into position.  Although Cerise Shaker Base and Drawer Base cabinets come with finished sides, the back sides are rough and we need to cover up. we chose to go for a simple and modern look leaving the middle of the desk totally open. We used two solid wood doors from a 15" wall cabinet W1530 ($137.11) to cover the back of the Drawer Base cabinets and a 3" Base Filler BF3 ($32.43) cut to fill the 1 1/2" gap. We finished the desk by using a left over bamboo countertop for the desktop.  The Door Pulls DH4 ($9.99 per pair) are also standard Domain Cabinets products.

Desk: Rubber Swivel Wheels added to Drawer Base Cabinet DB15	Desk: Solid wood door and Filler used to cover back of DB15

The Big Wall Unit.  Or entertainment center if you wish, because if you take away the desk,  add a sofa and 48" flat screen you can easily adapt the concept for a Living Room.  (some might also switch the wine collection for dvds). The Cerise Shaker line is designed for easier crown molding installation, but we wanted a more "boxy" feel for the cabinet stack.  This required a couple cuts on a table saw, no big deal, any competent installer could make the simple modification. The Big Wall Unit is comprised of eight W2430 ($193.36), two W2430GD ($362.56) and two W2130GD ($246.32) mounted sideways. You'll notice that we split up the glass doors and mounted them on different cabinets to create a more interesting look.  Again we recycled counter tops for the 1 1/2" thick bamboo blocks- actually a variety of different materials could be used in place of bamboo, stone would work well here too. We had to mount pneumatic lifts on the horizontal opening doors because the hinges are not designed for this application, the pneumatic lifts hold the doors open and allow for smooth access.  An extra space for books was created by raising the W2130GD ($246.32) off the ground and adding a bamboo panel at the bottom. One of the benefits of using Wall Cabinets is that they are directly mounted on the wall, allowing easy flooring and cleaning.

Rearrange glass doors for a different personal touch	Mount the Wall Cabinet W2130GD horizontally by using pneumatic lifts

The Small Wall Unit. For many of us, this small wall unit is our favorite of the showroom .  We like its simplicity - only four cabinets, two W2130GD ($246.32) and two W1239  ($129.89) mounted sideways. It looks custom but it's not, the cabinets are all off-the-shelf standard RTA products.  By rearranging four standard Wall Cabinets and mounting them relatively low on the wall, we created a 18" by 18" small center space that can be used for small decorative objects and a 60" long top shelf space.  The sides are covered by solid wood doors from a W1239  ($129.89). If you look closely you'll notice the extra piece we had to cut for the bottom, because the off-the-shelf doors are not exactly the right size.  We could have used standard 3/4" end panels here but we chose the doors because we think they look better, even with the extra piece.   

Create extra space in the middle and top by rearranging standard Wall Cabinets	Using W1239 door and Filler to finish the sides

Cabinets don't have to be only fixed functional boxes. Your inner child and a little inspiration can turn them into something more. We set out to create a space that is not a kitchen or bathroom, and doing so strictly from our online Cerise Shaker RTA products. Not only did we achieve our goal, we had fun doing it! We like to think that you are having fun designing with our products too. If you are, we'd like to hear about it. Show us your creative uses for our cabinets and we'll share your story online too.

(For more information about Cerise Shaker, visit the Cerise Shaker main page here. You can also check out the virtual Cerise Shaker showroom. Ready to get started with your Cerise Shaker project? Order a sample door first or try our low cost Design Service! Please send comments or feedback to customerservice@domaincbinets.com)