Pine "cubes"

[Mike Rinken]

So the wife and I went looking for some bookcases for our bedroom. We headed to an unfinished furniture place as I want to match a stain we have on the other pieces in the bedroom, but I didn't have a lot of time to build them. We looked at about 1000 different styles, but kept coming back to some basic pine cubes. She really liked the look of them, but the price was WAY out of line. $150 for a 5 high cube that could be built with $30 worth of wood. The more I looked, the more I said, no I can build these and build em quick. So I head to the wood shop, pick up $100 worth of wood to build 4 of these and head home.

I've built 2 in the past 6 weeks and the wife is starting to get that "look". You know the one I speak of. But I can't bring myself to spend $150 on one of these things when I can build em so dang cheap. I really don't have a lot of build time lately thus the delay in creating them. SOOOOOO......

I've done a pretty extensive web seach to no avail. What I'm looking for is pine cubes. A 5 high, 4 high and 3 high. Each "cube" is roughly 14x14, but

3, 4 or 5 cubes high. I'm not stacking cubes on top of each other for the look, or maybe that would work. IF I could find them pre-built very cheap, I'd sand and finish them easily. I need a total of 4 - 5 highs, 4 - 4 highs, and 3 - 3 highs. I've got 2 5 highs built, but can use those in other areas of the house so I can get a consistent look in teh MBR.

Anyone have a good cheap source for these? I'd love to find where the unfinished furniture store is buying them from and just get them in bulk. To buy the cases from them would cost roughly $800 after all is said and done.

Thanks all!

[tom]

Mike wrote: snip

[Andy Dingley]

Hey hotshot, you're the expert, you build the things.

Whenever I go to cheap furniture shops or Ikea, my reaction is "How the hell do they make this for that little? I can't even buy the timber for that". I doubt if my local prices are much different from yours.

[John]

Given the obvious constraints on your free time do you really think that even if you could find pre-built ones that you'd be able to sand and finish them quickly enough to eliminate "the look", especially since your wife now has a 6-week head start on you?

Sounds like you have lost this battle and that the missus may shortly be going to the furniture store to pick up some _finished_ units.

But hey, when the time comes at least you'll have some wood on hand for a future project.

J.

Mike R> I've built 2 in the past 6 weeks and the wife is starting to get that

[Mike Rinken]

Actually after thinking about things, I'm going to use the existing ones and use pine cube wine racks. I've found some really cheap cubes (about $10 per cube) that is finished to the point of taking stain and she now likes the look of these better. :)

So all is well. Thanks for the posts.