A SketchUp lesson learned

On Friday, I put up a post about how I was drawing my daughter's bathroom built-in cabinet using SketchUp, but I was taking a shortcut by not converting each part of the thing into a "component." I commented that I hope this did not come back to bite me. Well basically it did. As my drawing became more complex, I recognized the necessity of using components. So, this morning before church, and then this afternoon, I deleted a bunch of stuff I had drawn and drew them all over making them components. What you see above is the new drawing and where I stand as of now with this project.

So, file this away as a "Note to Self" - always use components when drawing in SketchUp. To see all the posts on this project, click here.

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Beth's built-in: more design work

A hole in the wall. In this drawing, I have opened up the wall where the cabinet will reside and have added the 2x4 framing needed.

I have to admit, I am cutting corners with this SketchUp drawing of Beth's bathroom built-in. I have been adding the 2x4 framing that will line the sheetrock opening. I also will build a little 2x4 platform for the whole thing to sit on. But I have not made all of these 2x4's "components." I may regret this, but this step can be tough to do in a complex drawing. See the photo below for the rear veiw:

The view from behind. Twisting this drawing around, you can better see the framework and the bench the built-in will rest on.

I opened up the wall this afternoon and measured the location of the existing 2x4's behind these walls. All of this helps me formulate not only the design process, but the construction process as well. Plus with SketchUp, I will be able to better explain how this project will come together since I can twist and turn this drawing around.

A potential change
There is already a significant design change under consideration for this built-in. The plan has always been for it to have two drawers and two doors above them. The doors would be tall, slender raised panel doors and the panels would be a natural colored tiger maple. The rest of the built-in would be a medium stain red oak. Cool.

This built-in will reside on a wall adjacent to the door to this small bath. Most of the time, this door is open, and the built-in will be behind the door. So the question arose - do we really need doors on it? Would open shelves be better? This idea first surfaced a couple of weeks ago and at that time, it was shot down by my wife. Today, my mom and two sisters were over and my younger sister says, "that would look good without the doors." Everyone thought this was a great idea including my wife. Go figure.

From an appearance standpoint, the doors would look the best, what with the tiger maple and all, but I am not sure how practical they would be. Plus no doors is easier to build.

I will continue to work on this drawing over the weekend and hope to have an update on Sunday. To see all the posts on this project, click here.

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Have a question or comment? Leave yours by clicking on the "Comments - post yours here" link below. And if you like this post or this project, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here.

Beth's built-in: the SketchUp

I got up early this morning and thought I would sit down before we left for church and tackle a rough drawing of the built-in cabinet I will soon build for my daughter's small bathroom. It was quiet and I had all the necessary tools: my graph paper and printer's ruler along with my reading glasses, Diet Mountain Dew and plenty of natural light. I like sitting here because I can look out the window and see what is going on.

This is the view from my kitchen bay window. I have a wooded yard and I am in the process of creating a woodland garden in this area. What you see is a small collection of hosta and my largest hydrangea - love those big, blue blooms. I plan to add all kinds of ferns, ground cover and I am currently rooting about 15 hydrangeas, so I think this area will get filled up pretty quickly. One of my projects for the summer will be to clear out all the growth behind the hydrangea. I have to do this every few years because it just becomes a mess of honey suckle, and vines of various sort. It will be hard work and already it is hot - the high today will be 94 degrees with thick humid air. So, a good day to stay inside and do some planning...

Here is what I have drawn so far (I know it is hard to see - click the photo to enlarge it). Remember from my first post in this series that I have a blank wall in which the cabinet will reside. What you see here is a scale drawing. It will be tall and slender which I like. It will have two drawers and two tall doors on it. Behind the doors will be three shelves for storing towels and various other girl stuff.

I also started on the SketchUp drawing and decided that I would have to include the tub/shower unit as well as the door. I downloaded a six panel door to fit this opening, but getting it to fit properly was a pain, so I just left it off. I was doing well with it until I realized the molding around the door was not thick enough to extend beyond the tickness of the baseboard and I did not want to fuss with it any more. I am still very much a novice when it comes to SketchUp.

I also started drawing the project full size on the wall where it wil reside. I quickly learned that the built-in shown in the drawing above will be way to low to the floor. At least much lower than I intended it to be, so again, being able to draw the project full size is very beneficial.

I will continue to work on the SketchUp drawing this week. Sunday, we leave for our annual beach trip to Destin, Florida. We are anxious about this because the monster oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is knocking on Destin's doorstep. We have a backup plan in place to shift eastward to Panama City, Florida if the oil gets too close.

To see all the posts on this project, click here.

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Have a question or comment? Leave yours by clicking on the "Comments - post yours here" link below. And if you like this post or this project, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here.

Back to woodworking

Fix me! This wall seems to be screaming this to me. Before I do, I want to add a built-in to increase storage space in this small bath.

I don't know about you, but the last two times I finished a major project, I had to take a break from woodworking. This certainly has been the case with the Scott bookcase - when I finished it, I had to get outdoors and work on my yard and whip it into shape. At the same time I participated in some lawn and garden workshops and most recently I went on a fabulous local hydrangea tour.

But, as the summer sets in, the optimum time to add plants to the landscape has passed so I am thinking about my next woodworking project. I had posted earlier that I am working on down loadable plans for one of my most popular projects - my coffered ceiling in my living room, but this has been a slow process and I have basically lost interest in it. One of my goals with this blog is to see if there is a way to make some meaningful money from such a website as this and I think down loadable plans is a worthwhile goal, I just can't seem to get this project completed.

The photo above shows a wall in my daughter's bathroom. It is a small bathroom with extremely limited storage space. We have always had an interest in adding a built-in cabinet to the wall shown, and this idea picked up steam when we had some plumbing work completed which required cutting a hole in the wall. My thinking is that there is no use in patching a wall that we want to cut an even larger hole into - a hole which would make room for the built-in.

During the week ahead, I will draw up the plans and maybe even draw the project in SketchUp. I'm not sure about SketchUp plants because I am extremely slow with it, so we'll see.