Man at work: a toy soldier studio project

Last month, out in the toy soldier studio, I built this clutter-concealing cabinet.

 with that, I proclaimed the toy soldier studio finished and complete; and then...

my eyes fell upon this corner...a riot of clutter and cast-off furniture.  It was time to get to work and actually finish the space.

The first step was to clear the corner.

The work began in earnest.  Usually I like to make use of salvaged materials that I have lying around, left over from previous projects, but when I went to the woodshed...the well was dry, so it was off to the home improvement store.

The goal was to build a workbench with an under-the-counter cabinet with sliding doors.  The bench surface was specifically built to acommodate a large self-healing cutting mat.

The toughest calculation of the whole project was designing a cut-out to fit around the existing window sill.

Getting the thing into place took three hands, unfortunately, I only have two.  Cleats screwed to the walls made the process much easier.

I made a very robust corner leg as the main support.  Every thing was level, square, and plumb...unfortunately, as I went along, I found that the shed itself was none of those things.

Everything was screwed together except for two small contact points which I glued.

Next came the wainscot and sliding doors. 

Before:

After:

I'm very happy with the results.

Two weekends well spent...now it's time to relax in my favorite place, surrounded by some of my favorite things.

Until next time...

Soldier on!

Mannie