This piece was built for a shared living situation with a small kitchen, and it had two jobs to do. First, storage: the open cubbies are sized so each person in the house can claim their own two slots to keep their own stuff in the kitchen. Second, space: with a small kitchen, every bit of extra workspace matters, so a butcher block counter was added on top to give back some much-needed counter space.
A trash can pull-out is built into the base. Five people sharing one small undersink can wasn't going to cut it, so it's integrated right into the cabinet instead.
It's built out of sturdy Baltic birch plywood, with every joint dadoed so the whole thing locks together and can be leveled and anchored straight to the wall. The dados run tight on purpose, which makes for a careful glue-up — everything has to be aligned and squeezed into place just right. Where a few seams weren't perfectly clean, they got filled with silicone caulk and painted over so the finish reads smooth.
It's painted white to match the house. This one wasn't meant to be a statement piece — the priority was keeping it practical and clean. The trickiest part, honestly, was getting it hung: finding studs and getting it level on the wall took some trial and error before it was solid.