I have been wanting a wooden box by my kitchen sink to get rid of the clutter there for a while now, and yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore! I went out to my garage, found some scrap wood, and threw one together... And I thought I would take pics and share it with YOU!
Here are step by step instructions on how to make this wood box, for under $10, and in less than an hour! Woot!
Soooo, here it is...
Supplies you will need:
- Wood- I used 1"x6" wood planks, but you can use different sizes depending on the size of box you want.
- Chop Saw- You may be able to get your wood cut at your local home improvement store, like Home Depot, or Lowes if you don't have a saw.
- Brad Nailer with nails OR wood glue. Nails are faster, and easier, but glue works too. Careful if you decide to use glue though... If it gets on the wood, that wood won't stain the same as the rest of the plank.
- Sand Paper
- Wood stain- I used Minwax Jacobean for this box. It's kind of my FAVE right now....
- Gloves (Optional)
- A bristle brush
- Lint-free rag
Here is my scrap wood that I used. I measured the length that I wanted the box, and cut three pieces of wood to that length. Those are your sides and bottom of your box.
I then put the bottom, and two sides together. I held the wood in place and used my brad nailer to nail it together. Please be careful of your hand and foot placement when you use a nailer! If you choose to use glue, make sure it's WOOD GLUE! You will also need clamps if you use glue. The clamps will hold the wood in place while the glue dries. I don't have a picture of how this is done, but I like
these clamps. You basically just glue, make sure it's in the right spot and then clamp to hold in place.
If you use nails, and they come out the bottom like this on the left.... Don't worry, you can clip the ends off with wire cutters as see on the right!
I forgot to take pics of doing the ends... SORRY! But all you have to do is measure the whole side of the end and cut a piece to fit. Notice how in the picture below, the end pieces fit the whole side. Then you nail or glue the ends the same way that you did the sides.
After you have your box all put together, grab your hand paper, or hand sander if you have one, and sand it all over, inside and out. If you want a more distressed look, sand corners more than the rest so they look worn. This will help later when you sand to give a distressed look, after your stain is dry.
OK, next! Stain! We are almost done! Phew!
Get your gloves (optional, but highly recommended- if you're like me and get stain everywhere every time I do it), stain, bristle brush, and rag!
Don't tell my son that I used his underwear as an old rag. Mmmmk...
I wanted to stain my box, it was the only thing I could find. It works, right?! (hahaha) Moving on...
When I stain, I like to stain small sections and then wipe off those sections.
I like to wipe off my stain right away so it's more surfacey. That way, when I sand it later it will still have a distressed look. Stain it alllll over, and if you even do the bottom, you'll have a multi-functional piece of decor- like if you want to use your box upside down somewhere else. I like to have multi-functional pieces of decor... Ha!
Your box should look something like this when you are done.
Now is the hard part... waiting for the stain to dry. On your particular can of stain, it will tell you how long to wait, I typically wait over night which is what I did in this case. After your stain is dry, grab your sand paper again and sand those corners! If you have already sanded the corners to look worn this will go quickly.
On the left you see my stained box, pre sanded, and on the right you see my box post-sanding, See the distresses look? That's my love lately. :)
And you're done!! Put the box wherever you want it, for me it was by my sink. Yay for less clutter!
By my sink...
I like to have my decor be functional as well as pretty, so I put hand soap, lotion, and some fake flowers in it. I can't be bothered with keeping more real flowers alive! I have children to worry about!
Enjoy! xoxo, Sharee
