How to Build a Wardrobe With Drawers

Place a sheet of 2-feet-by-6-feet-by-1-inch furniture board on a work surface so you are looking at it from one of the short edges. Use a tape measure to mark a point 1 inch from the top. Now measure a point 6 inches from the bottom and a third point 18 inches beyond that. Place a woodworking square at each of the points and draw a line parallel with the short sides at each of the marked points across the board. Now mark one more point for a clothes rail. It should be 4 inches from the top and midway between the sides of the board. Take a second sheet of furniture board and mark it in the same way.

Clamp each of the furniture boards down so you can work on them safely. Use a woodworking router to cut away a dado section along each of the six lines you have drawn. The routed area should be 1/2-inch deep and 1/2-inch wide running the full width of the furniture boards. Now carefully drill at the clothes rail points on both boards with a 1/2-inch wood bit. Drill down only 1/2 inch.

Measure two new points on both of the furniture boards to mark where the drawers' runners will go. On the same side you routed, mark a point 7 inches from the bottom and another one 16 inches from the bottom. Both marks should be between the two dado sections closest to one another. Place two strips of batten parallel with the routed dado at each of the four marked points on each board. The battens should be ½ inch wide, ½ inch deep and 20 inches long. Position them 2 inches in from either edge of the furniture board and fix each of them in place with four equally spaced wood screws.

Insert three sheets of 2- feet-by-3-feet-by-1/2-inch plywood into the three dado grooves you have routed in one of the furniture boards. Ensure the plywood is flush with the edges of the furniture board, so that the plywood's 3-foot edge stands out at a right angle. Use wood glue to fix them in place. Insert a 3-foot length of 1/2-inch doweling into the clothes rail point and glue that in place. Now place the other furniture board on top of the plywood so the grooves face down to meet the plywood. Glue the three joints and clothes rail in place. Stand the wardrobe's frame upright so that two of the plywood sheets are near to the floor and one is at the top.

Saw a thin sheet of hardboard so that it is 47 inches long by 35 inches wide. Designate one side of your wardrobe as the front and one as the back -- it doesn’t matter which way is which. Use small nails to tack the hardboard to the back of the wardrobe. The hardboard should be flush with the edges of the wardrobe and run from the lowest cross section of plywood to the top one. Tack it across all the three cross sections and both uprights.

Construct a drawer for your wardrobe. Take two sections of plywood that are 18 inches by 9 inches by 1 inch for the sides of the drawer. Use the router to make a dado section that runs across the wood 2 inches from one of the long sides. The section routed should be ½-inch wide by ½-inch deep. Do this for both the drawer's side sections. On the reverse of each side section, place a 1-inch-by -1-inch-by- 9-inch wooden batten. Position it at either end and screw it in place so it is flush with the ends of the side sections. Place the drawer's sides parallel to one another with the routed sides facing out.

Position a section of 37-inch-by-9-inch furniture board so that it is at right angles to the drawer's sides, forming a "C" shape. Screw through the battens that adjoin the furniture board from the inside to fix the three sections in place. Now place a section of 37-inch-by -9-inch plywood at the other side of the "C" to make a rectangle and screw this in place through the corresponding battens. Use small nails to tack a sheet of thin hardboard to the drawer to make a bottom. The hardboard should be a rectangle, 37 inches by 18 inches, and nailed to the side closest to the routed section. Now make a second drawer and push both drawers into the wardrobe along the runners, one above the other.

Attach a sheet of 47-inch-by-12-inch furniture board to the hinges on the left side of the wardrobe to form a door. Screw the door in place from the inside so that when the door is closed it covers half the entrance to the wardrobe. Repeat this on the right side with a second sheet of furniture board with the same dimensions.

Screw a handle into the middle of the face of each drawer. Screw two more handles into the wardrobe's doors. Add a magnet stopper to the inside door and roof of the wardrobes so they stay closed.