Credenza drawer project

When I moved into my new house, I knew I wanted a vintage credenza to use as a TV/entertainment unit, to store CDs, DVDs, photo albums, gadgets and other odds and ends, and received one as a gift. With having cats, I thought it would be best to hide as many cables as possible. So I took it upon myself to see if I could adapt one of the drawers to allow access to the cable box. I knew what I wanted to do and had an idea of what kind of hardware I would need, but just wasn't sure if it would work. After getting some advice and spending less than $10 at my local big box store, I managed to turn the drawer front into a flap that opens on hinges, and stays closed with a magnetic clasp.

The first thing I had to do was remove the front panel of the drawer, which was fairly simple, but I did have to saw off some of the wood from the sides of the drawer that were slotted into the drawer front. I then drilled a hole in the back of the drawer and a corresponding hole in the back of the cabinet for cable access. This allowed me use some of my fancy tools, including the circle cutter!

The tricky part was figuring out how to place the hinges so the drawer front would have enough clearance so it could actually open.

Ta da! It worked. With the door closed you wouldn't know it has been modified. In total I think this took me about half an hour.  I also changed the drawer handles.