Built in Brompton Storage Cupboard

Part of the convenience of a Brompton Bike is that it can be folded down and taken anywhere. When you get home at night instead of leaving your bike in a the garden shed or garage you just bring it in with you.

The problem then is where do you store it? Some people just leave them out, hide them behind the sofa or even hang them on the wall as a piece of engineering art. After trying out various option I decided to build in a hidden bike store as part of my kitchen re-fit.

The Brompton store is built into a modified 800mm kitchen base cabinet and is accessed via a pull out drawer built into my living room wall. At the back of the drawer is a storage cabinet for lights,tools, tubes and spare parts. This is made up from 2 IKEA Moppe cabinets.

The kitchen cabinet is fitted with a sideways mounted drawer runner that is accessed via a hole cut into the side of the cabinet. The cabinet is positioned next to a stud wall with the timber studs built around the cabinet opening so the drawer can be pulled out through the wall to access the bike. The remaining space inside the cabinet is blanked off hiding the bike and allowing the front cabinet to be used as normal for kitchen items. The cabinet is deep enough for a Brompton Bike fitted with SPD pedals.

Step 1: The Brompton Bike

The Brompton Bike is designed as a fold up city bike and due to it's small size when folded can be carried onto trains, buses shops and restaurants. All Bromptons are hand made in London and come in a huge choice of configurations.

When folded there are 2 tiny wheels on the back of the bike that allow you to wheel the bike along rather than carry it. The bike folds and unfolds in around 15 seconds.

My Brompton is a Black 6S. 6 for 6 speed and S for sport as it has flat bars allowing for a more aerodynamic riding position.

As standard the bike comes with a folding pedal on left hand side. I ride with clipless SPD pedals so I have fitted them to my Brompton. The only downside is the folded bike is a couple of inches wider than the standard bike.

With SPD pedals and folded my bike measures 600mm x 600mm x 350mm (roughly 2ftx2ftx14") I have allowed for this in the cabinet design.

Step 2: Kitchen Cabinet Mod

fig. 1 A standard 800mm base cabinet is used to store the bike.

fig. 2 Cabinet with doors removed ready for modification.

fig. 3 The back panel is removed and is cut down and refitted near the front of the cabinet to hide the bike.

The shelf is cut down to form the pull out drawer. The old drawer top and middle supports (still shown in place) are removed and discarded.

A 410mm(w) x 660mm(h) hole cut into side of cabinet with a jig saw, timber batons are fixed to the cabinet base and drawer runners are fixed to the batons. Depending on the timber batons and drawer runners the height of this hole can vary. The most important thing is that the saddle of your brompton clears the hole when mounted on the pull out drawer. A small timber baton is fixed to the top edge of the cutout to provide support for the chipboard as it will be quite narrow after cutting the hole for the bike.

fig. 4 Testing the hole for size with the bike mounted on the pull out drawer detailed in the next section.

No space for a 800mm cabinet? The Brompton is around 600mm deep and as an extra storage depth is added by running the drawer out through a wall a 600mm cabinet or maybe even a 500mm could also be used. The extra IKEA storage cabinet would have to be left out though.

fig. 5 I have used heavy duty 700mm x 45mm runners on this project. Drawer runners on Ebay Made by GTV they have the following specs

700mm long extension and can carry 35Kg or 77lb of weight.
Features :

- runs on ball bearings

- telescopic slider construction

- rubber brake

- release catch allows drawer to be separated from the runners

Not shown in the figs above I have mounted the runner protruding from the cabinet into the wall opening. This gives me upto 100mm extra space in the cabinet as I am effectively using the wall depth as extra cabinet depth.

Step 3: IKEA Moppe Cabinet Modification

At the end of the pull out drawer I have mounted a storage cabinet for lights,tools, tubes and spares.

The cabinet is built from 2 IKEA Moppe cabinets IKEA Moppe cabinets fig. 1

Two of these cabinets are just too tall to clear the top of the cabinet cut out so I have cut down one of the cabinets with a jig saw fig. 2. When cutting down the cabinet score the cut line with a craft knife then jigsaw just outside this line. This will stop the plywood cabinet splitting as you cut. To finish the cut sand down to the cut line. The offcut can be cut again to make a storage tray at the top of the two boxes.

fig. 3 Screw/glue the cabinets together and fix it to the drawer with small screws.

fig. 4 As a finishing touch the cabinets can be labeled with Lazertran paper.

Step 4: Pull Out Drawer

fig. 1 The base of the drawer is melamine faced chipboard and this sits on two 55x37 timber batons. I used the old shelf from the cabinet for the drawer base.

The drawer runner and the MDF drawer front are screwed to these batons along with the extension for the drawer base to mount the IKEA Moppe cabinets. The MDF drawer front fits onto the hole in the wall with architrave fixed to it hiding the gap.

fig.2 & 3 The MDF drawer front is braced with metal brackets. When loading the bike the Eazy wheel on the back of the Brompton is lined up with the small timber block screwed to the base of the drawer. This ensures the bike is in the centre of the drawer when closing.

figs 4-6 show the plans for the drawer

fig. 7 shows the completed drawer front

Step 5: Building the New Wall

fig.1 shows the existing glazed wall and double doors that are going to be replaced

fig.2 the old wall almost removed

fig.3 the new studwork and door lining in place

fig.4 test fit on sliding drawer through new wall studs

fig.5 plasterboard cut and fixed to timber studs

fig.6 MDF drawer front is cut to size allowing a 10mm gap and fixed to the drawer base.

fig.7 view from the kitchen side of the new wall showing the modified kitchen cabinet. The shelving has been cut down to fit the reduced cabinet depth. The cabinet is fitted with temporary doors for now and these along with the MDF worktop will be replaced when the new kitchen is fitted.

fig.8-9 Completed project with the new door to the kitchen fitted