Had a customer who had inherited a cabinet from their family. They liked the cabinet, but wanted it to have a deeper top (to put photos and knick knacks on). The back of it was also a poor quality piece of plywood, since it was supposed to be up against a wall. However, the customer had it in a place where the back would be seen from the living room, so they wanted something to cover the plywood up.
The top consists of two boards, jointed and planed down, with the two edges joined in the middle. In hindsight, this was an error, because the customer wanted the top to appear darker in order to match the cabinet, so I had to play around a lot with stain in order to get the center portion to match the rest. The customer actually joined in to do the staining so she could get it just as she wanted.
For the back, I created a mortise & tenon framework with walnut panels inset into grooves. This would enable to panels to “float” so the wood movement wouldn’t cause any issues
To attach the top, I used some figure 8 hardware, and used nails to get the back in place.
Overall, it came out pretty well, and the client was pleased with the results.