Building an Easy Floating Cabinet From Plywood

When we first bought our house we had a super creepy and damp basement. But I turned it into a severely under used, but beautiful…storage space! Yes sarcasm. You can actually see how I refinished the basement in this blog post I wrote about it. But it was finally time to move our home gym out of the spare bedroom it was occupying. And because the basement was waiting for something more interesting, the gym was headed downstairs. Of course this included the giant entertainment system that my husband uses to train and the logistics to make that work. So to start off this big home gym relocation project I built a floating shelf cabinet system to house our massive TV and so I can easily clean under it. This is the start of quite the adventure friends!

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Want to see this build in action? You can watch my build video here (+ make sure to subscribe to my channel)!

Tools + Materials

Tools

MAterials

1. Prep Plywood

First things first, I ripped down all of my ¾” plywood into more manageable pieces.

Then I measured out my cuts and used my track saw over foam insulation board to cut down the plywood into the pieces I needed.

I also used the miter saw to cut down the longer pieces. I do have printable plans listed here if you’d like my exact measurements.

To cut thin pieces like the supports I went back to the table saw. You could totally use the track saw if you don’t have a table saw though.

Then it was time to label and organize all of my pieces.

Can’t forget my favorite step in a cabinet build, edge banding yay…so that also happened.

It really makes such a difference, now this plywood looks like a solid piece of wood.

*Not shown, trimming and sanding of the edge banding to blend the harsh seam and make it look smoother.

Some of the plywood wasn’t the best and had weird edges, so I used some plastic wood filler, let it dry and sanded it to make it look more finished.

2. Assemble Cabinet Boxes

While the wood filler was drying I got to drilling pocket holes in the top and bottom pieces of the cabinets. You definitely could use wood glue and wood screws for a project like this, the pocket holes aren’t necessary. Because of the way the boxes are connected, you’ll never see the fasteners.

I used wood glue to start turning this plywood into boxes, because cabinets are basically boxes.

I like to make sure the pocket holes are hidden so I put them on the top and bottom of the cabinet. This way it looks nice and neat.

And by the end of Day 2 we have three cabinet boxes built. Two of them will go on the ends and the one with open shelving and will go in the middle.

I took some of the extra plywood and cut it to use as a backer for the open shelf cabinet.

3. Hang and Stain the Cabinets

First step, find the studs in the wall.

I placed spacers underneath the cabinets to bring them to the height I wanted them to float at. The spacers make it easy to match up each cabinet to the same height.

Then I attached the cabinets to each other.

And then I attached them to the wall. Don’t forget to use your level. The last thing we want is crooked shelves under the TV.

I find that staining custom built-ins after they’re in place is so much simpler than staining them before they’re installed.

I’m really glad I decided to do it this way because I was able to add some filler pieces to the ends to make it look really neat and finished.

4. Make a Lightweight Concrete Countertop

I know it sounds like it doesn’t make sense because concrete is heavy. But I had a plan to use wood and cement board to keep the countertop from being too heavy.

Cement board is notorious for being really hard to cut. But I found this carbide jigsaw blade that is specifically made to cut fiber board, cement board, or plaster.

And it cut like butter.

To make it look like a thick concrete poured countertop I put 2x4s on top of the cabinets and then screwed the cement board to those pieces.

To fill in the cracks and holes I used some mesh drywall tape and feathering cement.

Feathering cement is really cool because you can apply it in layers. It does set really fast, like in 10 minutes so you have to work quickly. I did let it dry for an hour before I came back to do a full second layer on the countertop.

I do wish I had added a corner bead along the wall instead of just the mesh tape because I think it would have looked a lot neater. I was able to shape it later, but for next time I would have done it differently.

Although it only takes a few hours to fully set I did leave it overnight. It looked pretty rough so I sanded it with 120 grit. Having the sander hooked up to a vacuum really helped cut down on the dust in the basement.

Then it was time to apply a second coat. This coat was a lot more liquid-y than the first so it went on a lot smoother. I let the second coat dry overnight and then sanded it so it was ready to be sealed.

It also got a wipe down with a microfiber cloth.

This needed 2 coats of sealer, and I actually used the same sealer that I used on the floor of my garage workshop because I liked how durable it’s been.

5. Attach Cabinet Doors

First, snuggle your pup.

I used a cabinet hinge jig to install the cabinet hardware. This jig makes it so much less intimidating to perfectly place your hardware.

Once the hinges were on I installed the cabinet doors.

Not shown: I installed the cabinet hardware using a cabinet pull jig to align the holes in the hardware to the cabinet. Super simple.

6. Final Details

One detail that makes it look more professional is filling in the gaps between the cabinet and the wall with caulking.

When I ripped away the painters tape I took some of the paint with it. So I used spackle to fill it before painting over it.

I got a cable management kit online so I could run the cables for the LED lights from the outlet through the wall and the cabinet.

Then I stuck the lights to the bottom of the cabinet and as you can see here, they work!

I am so happy with how this built-in turned out! It had been a while since I had a big furniture build project and this felt like a great one to come back with. I always want my projects to be approachable and this one really felt doable. I hope if you are inspired by this build you check out the plans for it and feel confident in making it your own! I can’t wait to turn the rest of this space into an amazing home gym very soon. Until then, happy DIYing friends!