I am building a version of the hall bench pictured below. Since my ceilings are 9' I added 2 more rows of cubbies above. The top ones will have doors. I am building this out of red oak and it will be in a corner not free standing. I am assuming I should use a filler strip down the side next to the wall to make up for any imperfections in the wall. I am wondering if it is going to look weird to have filler strip butted up against the 3/4" side vs having a face frame then the filler strip?
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Make the face frame wide enough to scribe to the wall.
Face frame is an option but since you are using solid red oak it is not needed. I like the clean lines of the painted cabinet pictured. Suggestion: take a long straight edge and see how irregular the wall is, then decide.
Kitchen cabinets, which are mounted to the walls are not subject to racking forces and face frames become a matter of choice. For free-standing pieces the face frames add some structure.
But a tall pieces like this should be firmly mounted to the wall for safety. If you do that (and I would urge you to do so) the racking issue is out of play and you can just pick the look you like better.
You could hold the filler strip back from the front edge about 1/4”, if not using a face frame. That way the side against the wall doesn’t look like it is thicker stock.
Flatness of the wall doesn't seem to be as big of an issue as squareness of the corner. The corner is obtuse so unless I make it out of square the front edge will have a gap at the wall.
I did a similar project, and simply have the face frame extend 1/4" to 1/2" beyond the cabinet box and use that to scribe the angle to the wall. It avoids installing a filler with another seam. Unless the wall is out of plumb by a large amount, I found this method works great.
Consider this: I'll guess that since you used red oak, the hall seat won't be painted...you'll stain/finish in some manner. If true, what about making a filler strip that's painted to match the wall? It won't look like an extension of the hall seat, and in fact could be fastened to the wall instead of the seat. Just a thought.
I think Fred has a good suggestion.
Fred, I like that idea. Thanks.