6-Drawer Library Coffee Table (Square)

Predrill and mark all pocket holes across the whole plan before you start assembling anything — it's much easier to drill flat parts on a bench than to reach into a half-built cabinet later.

Build the two identical end frames: legs, plywood end panel, and drawer-slide cleats. All outside edges stay flush.

Position the 1x3 cleats so their screw holes line up with your actual drawer slides — remember the slides sit 3/4" in from the outside face of the legs. Glue and brad-nail in place.

Space the front and back trim pieces exactly per the layout — this is the single most important measurement on the whole build, because it's what keeps the gaps between the six drawer faces even. Check the whole case for square before the glue sets; an out-of-square case guarantees six drawers that fight their openings.

Size each drawer box to its actual opening, not to the cut list numbers verbatim — plywood thickness and assembly tolerance both shift the real opening size by a little. Square is non-negotiable here: an out-of-square drawer box binds in a Euro slide no matter how well the slide itself is installed.

Mount the slide hardware to the case first, then to the drawer boxes, and test-fit before committing to final screws. A drawer that binds on the first try almost always means the box, not the slide, is slightly out of square — fix it now rather than fighting it after the faces are on.

Attach hardware (knobs/handles) to the faces before you glue and nail them to the drawer boxes — it's much easier to drill a flat face on the bench than after it's hung. Keep an even 1/8" reveal on every side of every face; this is what makes six separate drawers read as one clean grid.

Glue the five top boards edge to edge on a flat surface, clamped evenly so the joints don't dome or dip. Once dry, attach from underneath through the 2x2 legs with self-tapping screws — no fasteners show on top.

Attach caster wheels to the underside of the base. Sand every surface, fill any nail holes, and finish before loading the drawers back in.