A friend of Gustav asked if we could make a dedicated cabinet for ribbons that are won/awarded at equestrian events. If you participate in a lot of events, you eventually end up with a bunch of those. She wanted it around 55" x 35" and preferably in light oak if possible.
I normally don't have any oak in stock for building furniture of, but I once got a great tip from Ty Stange: Buy old oak furniture and reuse the materials.
In the late 70'ies and beginning of the 80'ies, there were some Danish furniture factories that made some good honest oak furniture, but the design is really not something that strikes a chord today. I found a cabinet with stained glass doors at a thrift shop, and paid 27 US$ for it. That was solid oak, furniture grade, and enough to build the entire cabinet from.
After some stock processing, to reduce the thickness, I dovetailed the corners of the main frame. A face frame was made using half lap joints in order to make it a fast build.
I glued on some strips to help making a rabbet for the back to be glued onto, and that worked pretty good. Due to the original size of the back, I had to glue some reinforcement strips to cover where the back was joined.
The doors were also made using half laps in the corners, and after the glue had dried, I routed a rabbet for the glass to fit into.
The glass was something that I had leftover from the greenhouse, and I could reuse the hinges and pulls from the original cabinet.
A couple of strips with holes in where glued to the sides. I weaved some 1/8" braided line through all the holes, to give something for the ribbons to be attached to.
Finally two magnetic closing mechanisms were mounted, and the cabinet was complete.
I didn't go all wild with sanding, since it will be placed in a stable, but all in all i am happy with the result.
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