When I finally was able to return to the wardrobe build, it was time to square off the glued up panels for the sides & back, and cut the bottom and top to size as well. On the side panels, I also cut the arch that forms the feet of the cabinet. But before I could assemble it, I had to go back to finishing it again. If you recall, the panels were finished, but the rails and stiles were not. Instead of doing assembly first, then finishing them in place, it seemed easier to finish them as separate pieces now.
That meant taping off the panels, and then applying the dye and shellac to the rails and stiles, also avoiding the glue surfaces. Yup, you can it hear it in my (typing) voice - that was tedious. But again, the result was great, and FINALLY, assembly could proceed.
The assembly finally revealed the true size of this thing - big. It took quite a few clamps. The bottom and top were attached using screws to cleats, and the arched stretchers in the front and back were attached with pocket screws.
Here's the result, with the center divider set in place and braced temporarily.
The assembly was placed on a wheeled dolly so I could scoot it around my shop as needed, and this proved really handy.
I could now contemplate the remaining build: drawer dividers, the doors, hardware, and the sliding clothes hanger. One thing left out at me when looking at the drawer dividers: this is going to heavy as well as big. The plans show the six drawer dividers as being made of solid stock, from the front to the back for the drawer side. That's about six more pieces of 22"22" 3/4" oak, in addition to the solid oak center divider. As the drawers are going to slide on side runners, solid full depth dividers seemed like overkill. So I re-designed them to be just 4" deep dividers. This made a lot more sense to me. The drawer dividers were attached to the side with pocket screws.
I took this moment to make the sliding clothes hanger for the right side. This was a lot of fun, for some reason.
Next up: drawers, doors, home stretch.