My 140G in-wall both-sides-viewable reef suffered from a rather crude skinning on the living room side. It was just badly painted 1/2" plywood that was peeling and even rotting. The "bones" of the stand, i.e., the frame, was quite solid, so all I needed was to improve the non-structural exterior. Since I had recently installed three Ikea wall mounted 2'x2' storage compartments on one side of the tank, I decided to match them as much as I could using Ikea doors for the hood and lower cabinet, and I was deliberatley seeking a very sleek contemporary feel:
I used 1/4 prefinished birch from Shell lumber (way way better than the big home repair chains for lumber). The entire 4'x8' sheet was only $20 bucks and saved me the trouble of putting any sort of coating on it, other than painting the inside with marine quality white paint. Another shot with the three original Ikea cabinets also visible:
The unusual part of the cabinet is the lower door section. Since the birch is only 1/4" thick it is not suitable for countersinking screws, so I just glued and tacked it with small nails. Here is close up of the doors closed:
The opening of my cabinet does not have a center brace, giving me an unobstructed 5'+ long opening, and I didn't want to obstruct that with a center door frame for hinges. So rather than hinges I just made the doors fully removable:
In order to do this I used a jury rigged "French cleat" by cutting half inch square C-shaped aluminum stock in the right lengths such that the top edges of the doors would rest in the groove. The hardest part was getting the aluminum drilled at just the right spot such that it would securely screw to the 1/4" birch plywood without ripping out the small amount of wood between the hole and the edge, and measured with sufficient accuracy such that the top edges of the three doors would present an even line. Two closer views of the 19" cleats:
The far side of the tank, viewable from the bedroom, is unchanged. When I constructed the stand I removed 6' of the living room side of the wall from the floor up to about 15" from the ceiling, installed a header for support, sealed the inside of the bedroom drywall and then built the stand into the wall such that the glass of the tank would be flush against the bedroom drywall. This creates sort of a rectangular porthole for viewing:
A closer view of the bedroom side. I am not a good photographer, but I have adjusted all these pictures with photobuckets limited editing to highlight the wood, doors, and walls rather than the coral and fish, so don't judge, heh:
Steps to this redo for those interested:
1. Remove all old cabinet skin/playwood
2. Stop all pumps and close all valves, and remove all under cabinet equipment including sump/refugium and skimmer
3. Clean, lightly sand (just so the new paint can grip), repaint interior of cabinet with marine quality paint (high gloss white)
4. Reinstall all under cabinet equipment and restart.
5. Cut and paint the inside surface of cabinet front and sides
6. Install cabinet front and sides using wood glue and tack nails.
7. Seal inside gaps where the birch ply meets the frame using caulk
8. Cut 1/2" C-shaped aluminum stock into 19" lengths, mod the outside two as required to fit over the edges of the plywood, and drill screw holes in all. Holes should be as close to edge as reasonable possible.
9. Mount aluminum french cleats to the cabinet with stainless steel 3/8" inch screws and bolts
10. Hang the doors on the cleats.
The hood was done about the same but it has hinges instead of cleats so I can open them rather easily. I still need to make some adjustments, and plan on raising the hood an inch and lowering the Ikea cabinets such that the top of the hood and top of the upper cabinet are even.
I used 1/4 prefinished birch from Shell lumber (way way better than the big home repair chains for lumber). The entire 4'x8' sheet was only $20 bucks and saved me the trouble of putting any sort of coating on it, other than painting the inside with marine quality white paint. Another shot with the three original Ikea cabinets also visible:
The unusual part of the cabinet is the lower door section. Since the birch is only 1/4" thick it is not suitable for countersinking screws, so I just glued and tacked it with small nails. Here is close up of the doors closed:
The opening of my cabinet does not have a center brace, giving me an unobstructed 5'+ long opening, and I didn't want to obstruct that with a center door frame for hinges. So rather than hinges I just made the doors fully removable:
In order to do this I used a jury rigged "French cleat" by cutting half inch square C-shaped aluminum stock in the right lengths such that the top edges of the doors would rest in the groove. The hardest part was getting the aluminum drilled at just the right spot such that it would securely screw to the 1/4" birch plywood without ripping out the small amount of wood between the hole and the edge, and measured with sufficient accuracy such that the top edges of the three doors would present an even line. Two closer views of the 19" cleats:
The far side of the tank, viewable from the bedroom, is unchanged. When I constructed the stand I removed 6' of the living room side of the wall from the floor up to about 15" from the ceiling, installed a header for support, sealed the inside of the bedroom drywall and then built the stand into the wall such that the glass of the tank would be flush against the bedroom drywall. This creates sort of a rectangular porthole for viewing:
A closer view of the bedroom side. I am not a good photographer, but I have adjusted all these pictures with photobuckets limited editing to highlight the wood, doors, and walls rather than the coral and fish, so don't judge, heh:
Steps to this redo for those interested:
1. Remove all old cabinet skin/playwood
2. Stop all pumps and close all valves, and remove all under cabinet equipment including sump/refugium and skimmer
3. Clean, lightly sand (just so the new paint can grip), repaint interior of cabinet with marine quality paint (high gloss white)
4. Reinstall all under cabinet equipment and restart.
5. Cut and paint the inside surface of cabinet front and sides
6. Install cabinet front and sides using wood glue and tack nails.
7. Seal inside gaps where the birch ply meets the frame using caulk
8. Cut 1/2" C-shaped aluminum stock into 19" lengths, mod the outside two as required to fit over the edges of the plywood, and drill screw holes in all. Holes should be as close to edge as reasonable possible.
9. Mount aluminum french cleats to the cabinet with stainless steel 3/8" inch screws and bolts
10. Hang the doors on the cleats.
The hood was done about the same but it has hinges instead of cleats so I can open them rather easily. I still need to make some adjustments, and plan on raising the hood an inch and lowering the Ikea cabinets such that the top of the hood and top of the upper cabinet are even.
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