Wooden Toolbox

A do-it-yourself wooden toolbox is an excellent beginner's project to dabble into the carpentry world of goodness. Today, I'm sharing how I built mine, while reminiscent of my very first wooden projects tackled a long time ago.
I've been asked many times how I began working with wood. Ha, I kind of forced myself to get there. 

But oh, well, as it happens to many of you, I love decorating my home, but I prefer to spend my money on something other than necessary.

I wanted to transform my home from a simple bare builder's grade to one with lots of moldings and details. My love for moldings and trim pushed me to get into wooden projects to decorate around the house.

The starting point was a sequence of baby steps, one project at a time.

As my skills improved, the projects got bigger. 

That's the case with my latest project, building a wall of bookcases in my bedroom. One project that has given me lots of headaches. 

Sometimes, I think I'm trying to bite off more than I can chew, but when the project is done, I'm always happy with the results and with all I learned from it.

A wooden toolbox is one of those projects where you can gain more confidence with your measurements and perhaps conquer the fear of using some power tools. It's such an easy project that it can be done with a regular saw, hammer, and nails.

Some scrap wood would work perfectly fine. You can go ahead and cut the bottom and long sides to your desired measurements. The one I made is somewhat big: 24"L x 9"W x 10" H. All the material was 3/4" thick.

The end sides are then cut to size, and you can draw the lines for the top "triangle" to be cut.

Again, you can do this with a regular saw. I did it using a circular saw, cutting both pieces simultaneously, which fastened the process.   

You need to clamp the wooden pieces to your bench and attach a guide for the saw to keep the line. Measure the distance from the blade to the side fence of the saw and that's where you need to clamp that guide. Then go ahead and cut it!

The next step is to open the holes where the handle goes.   

The handle I used was about 3/4" in diameter. I placed the drill bit point 3/4" from the top and attached some tape to mark how deep I wanted to drill. Both pieces were then sanded to round the sharp edges.

The pieces were all cut and ready to be assembled.

But first, some pinky-pink acrylic paint was applied.

A washout white was then applied.

After the paint dried, it was time to put it together. The long sides were attached to the bottom piece.

Then, for the end sides, remember to insert the handle before nailing the last side.

The toolbox is ready.

After lightly sanding the end sides and applying wax to the entire box, it was time to play.

 :)

These green bottles I took from my neighbor's recycling bin were awaiting a box!

I like the texture and the roughness of those long side pieces of wood.

I got so excited about my new "toy" that I went outside to take some more pictures! My lilies are still going strong. Remember them from my previous post?

I can't wait to set my Easter table now that I have the centerpiece.

Are you ready to build your own toolbox? Send me a picture if you do!