A birch ply wardrobe with secret boxes in the floor

Birch ply is my favourite board for furniture people actually see. It is strong, it holds screws well, and the edge, all those thin layers, looks good enough to leave on show. No edging tape, no paint.

This wardrobe fills a recess in a house in Chiswick. Four doors with long wooden pulls, and a few things inside worth showing off.

Plinth, carcasses, then the inside

The carcasses sit on a levelled plinth. The wall behind is lined in birch ply too, so when the doors are open it is birch everywhere, not birch with patches of painted wall.

The boxes in the floor

This is my favourite bit. In two of the bays the floor panels have a finger hole. Lift one out and there is a box underneath, in the depth of the plinth.

It is space every wardrobe has and nobody uses. Good for the things you need once a year: passports, the box of cables, the Christmas wrapping.

Lights

Warm strip lights run along the top, so when the doors open you can actually see what is at the back of the shelf.

The right side has shelves over a stack of three drawers. The left has hanging rails. Nothing unusual there, it is what most people need.

I went back to Chiswick in the spring and fitted out a whole small room in birch ply: wardrobe, cupboards and a desk.

See every photo of this job.