The problem: My kids are too short to hang their coats up on the hanger bar in the coat closet.  Plus, they are unable to keep track of such items as library books.

The first solution: Put a set of coat hooks behind the front door at a height the kids can reach.  This has been an improvement, with the kids finally able to take responsibility for their coats, hats and gloves.  But it needs more…

The final solution: A set of shelves and cubbies for their hats and gloves, and also larger cubbies for library books.  Books have been hard to keep track of, since the kids have many of their own, and also visit the library on a regular basis.  Lately, the library books have become mixed in with their own, and this has been a problem.

The design: It’s a simple bos with some dadoes to fit the shelves, back and dividers into.  I’m not sure yet, but I think the goal with this project, as with many of my recent projects, will be to use up some of the large amount of poplar plywood stock I have had around for years.

The shelf area of the coat center

I will face frame it with some solid wood, and paint the whole thing white to match the foyer.  The board with the coat hooks will be attached to the bottom using a dovetail groove.  I’ll have to practice this on some scrap.  Finally, this will be hung on the wall using a french cleat.  I chose this method in order to achieve the most flexibility as the kids grow, because I imagine I’ll want to raise this unit higher as they grow taller.

I have attached a Google Sketchup (free 3-D modeling tool download) file that is coat-center Sketchup drawing for this project.  If you download it and take a close look, you’ll see that this exposes my inexperience with the tool.  I find it difficult to use, to the point of wanting to abandon it for pencil and paper.  But, I see its potential, and will give it more time.  Also note that I have yet to show the attached coat hooks at the bottom.  I’ll update that later and post it here.

The width was chosen to precisely fit the width of the foyer wall behind my front door, and the number of cubbies directly relates to the number of kids I have.  Your mileage may vary.  If so, you can edit the Sketchup drawing all you want.

I actually have a deadline on this.  My wife has asked that this be complete by the time the kids go back to school the week of January 5th, 2009.  so, the bad news is I have pressure.  The good news is I should have plenty of shop time to get this done.

Updates to follow!

Final assembly of the lower beds

That’s a picture of the beds I’ve been building for the kids. These are loft/bunk style beds, where they will fit together in an “L” shape. The high beds are lower than a typical bunk, which is why they must be in the “L” configuration. There will only be enough room under the high bed for the occupant of the lower bed to fit their feet under it. If they tried to put their head under there, aside from some claustrophobia, they’d probably crack their head on the underside of the high bed if they moved.

So the low beds are complete except for a finish, and the high beds are nearly ready for assembly. Some sanding is still required, and I still need to build the rails and the ladders. The plan is to put the finish on everything while I’m on vacation the week of Labor Day.

Once that is all done, the final phase of the project will be to build chests of drawers to fit under the exposed end of the high beds. Who knows how long that will take. It’s been most of a year to finish four beds!