The Cupboard, for now

I did say, didn't I, that I'd tell you about the missing piece of the mud room?  Well, today I will tell you Part I of that story.

Despite the implication in the above (blurry) photo, there are actually next to zero progress shots of this piece.  I was in the I've-only-got-so-much-time-plus-this-is-a-weird-piece-of-furniture mindset, and I didn't think anyone would really be that interested in the process anyway, so why take progress shots?
The above photo was for the benefit of my Dave, actually...to show him I'd fixed an issue with the face frame which caused the trim to be out of plumb.  It took half the day to fix that 1/16" problem.  I'm having fewer and fewer actual problems with each building project now...but there are still at least a few head-smacking moments I could tell you about, like...

1. Pre-drilling a couple holes that were promptly covered up by other pieces and unusable
2. Pre-drilling the back legs, then gluing them onto the carcass backwards.  Twice.
3. Attaching the top two off-set shelves wonky (with the step-up to the back instead of the front)
4. Attaching all three interior shelves with the worst-torn-out edges facing front
5. Trying (and failing) to pound finish nails with my stubby hammer (no leverage with the stubbs, y'all)
6. Breaking off yet another drill bit inside the project (note: don't drill into a hole formed by previous failed attempts at pounding finish nails)
7. Getting glue everywhere
8. Attaching the bottom shelf 3/4" too high so that the 5 1/2" footer piece wouldn't cover the bottom plywood edge
9. Attaching the whole face frame crooked.  Lovely.

Sigh.  At least there weren't that many head-smacks to do with cutting the pieces themselves.  That's saying something with all those narrow rips I've been doing.

So then because of mistake #8, I decided to add quarter round trim to the edge of the bottom shelf.  And then I thought, why not attach trim to all of the plywood shelves?

This is how you do that, by the way, since clamps probably won't hold that curved edge too well:

Apply glue, then use painter's tape to hold it on while the glue dries.  And then, theoretically, you pound in some finish nails.

So because there is now trim on those bottom two shelves, there isn't a great way to do full-length doors except to make them overlay doors that are offset (instead of inset, like the original plan), and I really, really wanted to use these butterfly hinges:

Wish I'd taken a 'before' pic; these beauties were covered  in thick layers of paint.  The fix? Crockpot overnight with water and baking soda.  Like magic.

   So I modified the design from this:

To this:

And then I ran out of time.  So while the doors are fully designed, they haven't been built yet.  And none of it's been finished.  But David and I made a pact: I build this one, David finishes it.  Meaning, you know, he does the wood filler, sanding, painting, and caulking.  Lord bless him.

I'm really not sure why I made some of the changes I made to this design...but I think the final cut looks somehow a little less utilitarian, know what I mean?  It looks smashing with my pretty baskets:

And I think the piece as a whole is pretty handsome, too.

We've left the footer solid for now.  But maybe later it'll get fancied up a bit.  That'll be, like, three weeks down the line, though, because I'm still at work.  What do you think?