Transforming my DIY Aquarium Stand into a Beautiful Cabinet

So today I'm going to be beautifying this aquarium stand. This aquarium has been in this room for the last few weeks and I've been loving it. The tank just looks amazing. The fish are all nice and active, you can see here. And it's just nice to have a tank right by your laptop where you edit your videos and do your work. The stand you can see is one that I DIYed. It's made of 2x4s and you can see the inside of the stand. So there, that green cylinder is the CO2 tank. And then this right here is the filter, the filtration system for this tank. And it's currently moving all the water around. But to make this tank look even better, to make this whole view, this viewing more pleasant, it'd be nice to cover it up and just so that we can focus more on the tank. I think that'd be a really nice thing to do. So let me show you more of it so that you guys can see. But you can see the tank is up here. All the fish are looking good, the plants are growing in now. And then down below, we've got this right now. So I've just got two boards temporarily there just to hold the filter as well as the CO2. But today we're going to be putting a piece of wood underneath there, kind of like this. This one doesn't fit right in there yet, but we're gonna make some cutouts so that it fits nicely. And then we're also going to build some doors. I've got some of my parts so that I can build these doors. And we're not going to be making doors with hinges that kind of open out like a traditional cabinet. But we're going to be using magnetic latches. So we'll have a magnetic latch like this right here, one on the side here. And then this black thing, this is what holds the door together with the stand. So it's going to sit right here and we'll be able to clip the door in place. So you guys will see that in a while. And then one more thing I want to do is I want to fill in these holes here. So if you look closely, those screw holes, we're going to cover them up with some plugs. And then we're also going to cover the sides of the stand. But we're going to leave the back open. That's just for some airflow and ventilation. And yeah, we won't be able to see behind. So the back is really no big deal. It's just the sides and the front that I want to cover up today. So I've got a bunch of this plywood laying around. It's not the best looking plywood, but we're going to cover over a cleaner looking sheet of plywood. So just make it look more aesthetically pleasing. But I'm going to cut these up to fit so that we have a door. We have two doors and then we've got the side panel here. This is a smaller piece of plywood I had that was almost the perfect size. Just got to trim it up a little bit. So I'm going to do that and I'll show you the next step. This here is that plywood I was talking about. We'll be cutting this to size as well and then sticking it on top of this plywood. This is the one I was showing you earlier. You can see big color difference. This one here is much lighter and will match the stand better compared to this one. So that's why I want to cover it up. But this one is much thicker. So you can see it's a more solid piece and then this one is very thin. So I'll be gluing this and maybe even nailing it in. Now what I'm doing is I've got this set up outside with my circular saw. And recently my carpenter had an extra circular saw that he wasn't using. So he said I could have it, which was very nice of him to give me one of his. So I'll be using it. It's a little bit hard to see but I've drawn out my dimensions on paper. And now we're gonna cut out this plywood and we'll do the same thing for the other piece. All right, so I'm going to do something that could prove to be a mistake or it might just speed up time. So I've got my two plywoods put together using clamps and using this workbench that clamps the two pieces together. So now I'm going to use my handsaw and saw this thing as best as I can. All right, so off camera I just put this door together. You can see how nicely it fits in there. You can see some ugly marks there but we're gonna cover it up with the plywood. This is how it works. You push it and it unlatches itself. So right here we've got this bit that latches on. And then at the bottom we've got magnets to kind of hold it in place. So, oh wait, right here this is the part that clips in with this part. And then we've got the magnetic... I'm not sure what you call this, like a catch, so that it holds everything in place. So how I put it on is very simple. Just put it right on the stand and push it in place. Make sure the magnets are attached to each other. And you can see, pretty solid. Now we just got to make the outside of it look good. And I've got to work on this side as well. So let's finish this side up first. And for the side, you guys will see tomorrow much better. Right now it's late at night and the lights are all turned off. But on this side you can see it's not fixed in place. But just there we've got the side panel. And I've left a gap there in case one day I decide I want some like a tubing or maybe a wire from a light cord. I want it to go down this way. We have an opening here. Maybe even filter hoses so that it can come out this way. But just, yeah, decided to leave an opening right there. You can see it sticks in place. But because we don't have the magnetic latches down there, it is very like floppy and not stable. All right, now we're at the board for the bottom of the stand inside the cabinet. You can see I've marked out the areas where the 2x4 supports are located. So I've got to cut these all out. All four corners as well as the middle for the center. Center brace or center supports. So I'm gonna go ahead and cut that out using the hand saw. The reason why I decided not to use the circular saw, I stopped halfway was because that thing wasn't cutting straight at all. I'm not sure if it was something wrong that I was doing, my technique was wrong, or if it was just a problem with the circular saw. I'm not sure, but I just couldn't get that thing to cut straight. So that's why I've resorted to using the hand saw. It's more accurate and it's also quite fun. So I've removed the filter as well as the CO2. So now you can see down below there's nothing at all. And it's moment of truth. We're gonna see if the board I just cut fits. There is a little bit of gap. I made sure to cut it just a little bit larger than it needed to be. So I wouldn't have to go back and re-cut because it's not fun doing this. Well, it is fun when you get it right, but it's not fun doing it over and over again. So now I'm gonna get the filter back. And yeah, this thing looks so good. It's like a completed stand now, a cabinet. We'll call it a cabinet from now. Now take a look at this. I've got some glue on my hand, but yeah. So you've got the door set up in place working really nice. It works amazing and it's really stable as well. Like if I push it, it unlatches itself. I push it, it goes back in place. So cool. So happy with this. It's like my first ever door that I've built on my own. And it's not a proper hinge door, but I still consider it a door. And my stand is now a cabinet. Really love this. I've decided to leave this part open, just more ventilation, more air. And no one's gonna see this area because it's right in the corner. Let me get this door back on. I'll show you guys how that works. Push it in and it's in place. Perfect. Now I gotta get this side on this side panel here. 90 degree angle bracket. So we'll attach it onto the stand like this. And then we'll have a place to screw in this board. You guys will see in just a moment. All right, so there it is set up. You can see with the 90 degree angle brackets hooked in place. And this allows that board to stay in place. And you can see I can push this as hard as I want and it's not gonna go anywhere. Perfect. And then from the outside, it looks like this. Pretty nice. I'm sweating like crazy here. It's super hot now. Summer is quickly approaching. But before we end this, I want to show you a little bit of what I've been doing in the fish room. I've been trying to make that room look a little bit more aesthetically pleasing around the windows and the doors. So take a look at this. Okay, so today I am cutting up some 1x4s. I'm using 1x4s as frames for my windows and doors in the fish room. You can kind of see, I'll give you an example right here. This one I just finished up. You can see this is a sliding door. And I've just put everything together. It's screwed in. Usually I think you'd use like nails for these so you can't see it. But I'm using screws and I've countersunk them so that I can cover them up afterwards. But you can see firmly in place, this thing isn't going anywhere. And I really like the look of this. So now I just got to do the windows here. I've already cut out all the pieces. They're right here. So all these will go around this. Because you can see without the frames, you can kind of see the plywood and this thing, which isn't very nice looking. So just to kind of make this room look more aesthetically pleasing. Yeah, we're doing this and I'm almost done. So well, I'm not, I'd say I'm halfway there. So yeah, I'll see you guys once this thing is done and looking all good. And just like that, the window and door trims have been installed. Not perfectly, but it does look a whole lot better. And I really, really am liking the way it's looking. Man, I like this. Let me know what you guys think of it. For this door, it was quite wide and having just one 1x4 wouldn't be, have been enough to like stick out the side. So I had to add another piece of wood here, which I did. And you can see it looks quite good. I'm quite happy with it. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below. And there it is. It's done. I've decided not to put the outer layer of plywood to make it one solid color. Because I kind of am liking this two-tone look. In the comments below, let me know like what you would prefer. Do you like this two-tone look with the two different colors? Or should I just keep it one same color? I'm not sure. So that's why I'm gonna leave it like this for a few weeks. I'd be interested to read your comments and see which you would prefer. If I end up not liking this, I'll probably get a cutout so that I can see what the other color looks like. What it would look like if it was just one solid color. But for now, I don't really mind this at all. As always, I hope you enjoyed today's video. Subscribe for more. I'll see you guys next time.