Quick backstory that some of you might remember: our living room is tiny, my husband Mike is tall, his friends are even taller, and our low sofa made reaching the coffee table an athletic event. You all recommended an adjustable-height coffee table. It worked. No more beer spills or nacho lunges. Thank you guys!

Now I’m trying to solve a storage problem, and I think I’m looking for something I think it is a modular cabinet – but I am not sure about accurancy.

Here’s what I want:

Individual wooden cabinets, each one fully finished with real doors (not open cubbies). One alone could be a nightstand or side table. Buy a few, and you can group them together into a TV stand, credenza, or low bookshelf. Mid-century style, warm wood, doors to hide the chaos (my teacups do not need to sit next to Mike’s beef jerky).

Someone from my friend zone messaged me and said “try modular cubes – you can build different heights and reconfigure them.” That sounded perfect. Furniture Lego.

So I searched “modular cubes.”

What came up?

Plastic mobile storage cubes. For stadiums. For school classrooms. Grayish-blue things on wheels. Also some wire grid systems. Nothing with wood. Nothing with proper doors. And I honestly doubt those plastic things can hold a teacup, let alone look good in a living room.

So I’m stuck. I’ve tried other search terms – “modular cabinet system,” “stackable wooden cabinets,” “piece modular storage” – but I either get giant built-in systems or cheap utility stuff.

Now I’m wondering if I should give up searching and go custom.

I could draw up some rough plans and find a local woodworker to build exactly what I need. But here’s the problem: I’m good with yarn. I crochet, I knit, I make little woolly decorations for the house. Drawing furniture with accurate measurements, joinery, door hinges? That’s not my skill set. I’m genuinely nervous about walking into a woodworker’s shop with a terrible sketch and wasting their time.

So my two options seem to be:

1. Keep searching – maybe there’s a real product out there and I just don’t know the magic brand name or keyword.
2. Go custom – try to explain what I want using photos, mood boards, and my clumsy drawings. But I don’t know if that’s realistic for someone like me.

What would you do?

Has anyone here hired a woodworker without being able to draw proper plans? How did you communicate your vision?

Or – if you know an actual product that fits this description (wood, doors, standalone+combinable, available in the US) – please, please tell me the name or search term. My algorithm is clearly broken.

Thanks👍️!