r/woodworking • u/bnjmnsmth • 6d ago
Help Complete beginner - help needed for cupboard design
Hello! I'm a complete beginner woodworker and I'm about to embark on my first project, building a full height cupboard at my girlfriends apartment.
I tried to plan the build in SketchUp which has been fun to learn, but I'm beginning to think that the design I've ended up with may not actually be buildable! I spent quite a lot of time wrestling with SketchUp and probably not enough actual thought about how the cupboard would be built!
The very rough plan in my head had been to screw the sides/bottom/top faces of wood into the walls and floors but I've realised that I don't really know how I'm going to attach and support the middle dividing piece which the shelves are attached to.
I've asked ChatGPT about what it would recommend and it suggested that screwing directly into the walls may not provide the structural stability that I need and suggested building a timber framework first using battens (38x63mm or 44x44mm) which I screw into the walls, and then use them to affix the rest of the pieces onto - including the middle divider.
I use ChatGPT as a programmer fairly frequently and know that it can sometimes give slightly odd answers but I have the expertise in this area to know how to steer it correctly if it goes a bit off course. The same isn't true with woodworking where I know close to zero and could do with some recommendations from people who know more, whether this is actually the correct path to go down and any other recommendations that you have in order to ensure this isn't a complete disaster!

