It slides really nicely without them, and doing it this way made each drawer about 5cm wider, which is a nice space bump. The other one opens quite well when fully loaded with heavy clothes. I hand-planed and waxed the drawer slides, so it's quite smooth. I was a little worried, too, but figured I'd give it a shot.

Thanks! I definitely still feel like a novice, too. It's definitely more about the process and making stuff that's "mine" than getting it perfect. I actually have a few (minor) screwups on this one that I'll always notice, but whatever. It beats Ikea!

Not to actually throw shade at Ikea though... some of their stuff is a great deal haha.

Standard birch (not the super fancy stuff). I think B2 grade, 18mm (marketed as "3/4 inch shop birch here in the USA). It's pretty good stuff as far as I can tell, but Baltic birch fanciness would've obviously been nicer... I just couldn't justify the cost.

Thanks! I'm mostly just relieved to have it built... it only took a few real weekend days of work, but spread out across an embarrassing number of absolute months.

Part of my excuse was "glue won't cure right when the garage is too cold"... but I also just got busy. Oops.