Despite what my friends would have you believe, that I’m the personification of anarchy, I actually hate chaos.

For the last several years, the lack of storage space in our house has been driving me nuts and in particular the fact that we didn’t have an efficient way of storing and retrieving our CDs and DVDs.

We used to have our TV on a funky but poorly designed cabinet from Indonesia. The old unit looked OK but it didn’t have very much storage space because it’s design was more about style than function. There always seemed to be a large stack of CDs and books with various other bits and pieces strewn all over the top of the old sideboard that was already crowded with electronics.

In short it was a mess.

Another thing that was getting on my wick, is that I’m totally over, dark wooden furniture.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to design and make, to remedy our entertainment storage area. I don’t like the current trend in furniture design with their low storage areas that look great in minimalist showrooms but are impossible to live with. Another thing I don’t like about a lot of “so-called” modern furniture is that it looks so 1960s with their little legs that seem to be designed to make it difficult to sweep or vacuum under. Let’s not even talk about how outrageously expensive and over priced stylish furniture can be.

At first, I thought of making a wall unit but that design concept seemed so 1970s. Plus we have plaster cornices where our ceiling meets the wall  and I don’t like gaps between high furniture and the ceiling because they collect dust; are hard to reach and don’t display items well.

Last month I went to the Sydney woodworking show and it inspired me to get my finger out and do some carpentry. Here’s what I’ve come up with after years of procrastination and three weeks work.

The cabinet is constructed out of 19mm plywood, that has been “V” bookmatch veneered with figured English sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus). I used Australian silver ash (Flindersia schottiana) for all the solid wood components except the drawers which were made out of pine and 6mm plywood. The top was veneered in an exploding diamond pattern and inlaid with some commercially produced inlay strips.

All the exposed drawers (all dovetailed) for the CDs and DVDs are on runners that allow the drawers to be completely extended so the contents can be easily viewed.

On a side note about procrastination, my wife reckons that I procrastinate because if I put things off, that means it will be longer before I make some errors and mess it all up. I short, Engogirl thinks I’m afraid of failure.

I’m afraid………

 she might be right.