Pinterest Challenge

One of the blogs that I follow called Young House Love (DIY Home re-do) challenged readers to actually make something that they had been eyeing on pinterest.  I had been trying to figure out a way to organize the mail for us 5 roommates, rather than spreading it out on the counter or the dining room table, but hadn't seen anything in stores that I liked.  My friend Amanda got me started on pinterest during my trip out to Chicago, and I found an idea that I could replicate in a smaller scale!  Challenge accepted!

Here's the pin that I found, (originally from Remodelaholic) it's a wall mounted storage unit that they use for their kids socks.  Great idea!  However, it's too big for the area that we want it and proportions aren't right for mail.  So...I did a little sketching and took it home to get Dad's help.

We got wood from Lowes, 1/2" pine boards rather than 1" boards and set up in the basement.

 First task was to figure out the sizes.  We decided that the box should be about 11" wide so that a standard envelope will fit in it, and then the front board should be about 3.5" tall, again to fit an envelope, which means the real height of the box is 6".  Because there are 5 of us we decided to make 6 boxes, one for each and then another for our landlords/junk mail/catalogues/takeout menus, basically what ever we need.  This meant that the total height would be 36" tall.

We started by cutting the bottoms of the shelves to 11", setting all of them up so that we could have equal cuts, and then cut the fronts to 12" so that they can be attached onto the side walls, not into the side walls.  We used a circular saw, but for future remembrance, use a table saw so that your cuts are perfectly 90º angles.  A few of the bottom boards ended up different lengths by a millimeter, which ended up not making a difference, but it could have been a problem!

 Then the tricky part arrived in cutting out the side panels which are angled so that the boxes are on an angle.  This involved some math (luckily Dad was there!) in order to figure out the angle.  Once we marked where the bottom boards would attach to the sides we measured halfway (or 3") and then out 4.5" and drew our angle lines.  Not the easiest thing to describe!  But you should be able to see the faint zigzag line on the boards in the picture above.

 We then clamped the two sides together to make sure that the cuts would be symmetrical, and Dad started to cut using a jig saw.  He's better with the saw, so he did the cutting.

 Progress with half the side boards cut into their shape.  Is this starting to make more sense?

 Two sides cut!  Now to add in the middle boards and the fronts...

 We laid everything out on the workbench to make sure that we cut everything right.  Success!  Can you see it coming together now?

 Next step was the nail in the bottom boards between the two side boards.  We actually drilled little holes where the nails would go to make the nails go in easier, with a little space left at the bottom for the nails to stick in.  A quick sanding to smooth all the sides and drill holes and then Dad lined it up and I nailed it in, working on one side first before attaching the other side.

 After the frame, we attached the front panels, again using the drill and then nail technique which made life so much easier!

 Finished product!

 Demonstrating it's proper placement on the wall.  Next we used wood filler to seal the nails so it's a flat finish, let the filler dry and then sanded it down smooth.

 I then gave it a coat of primer that Mom and Dad had in the basement to help seal them and cover any markings that we made.  We had a perfect piece of cardboard so I could spray it outside with minimal grass coverage.  I sprayed the back first to get all the inside covered, and then flipped it over and painted the front

After letting it dry outside and then in the garage, it was transported south to VA where I gave it a coat of yellow paint, attached the back panel and hung it on the wall last night!  Next step is to find labels, something that you can attach and then slip a piece of paper into so that each roomie has a box.  I'm not completely thrilled with the yellow, which looked great outside, but is blah in some lights against the wall.  Maybe adding a blue paint stripe to frame the future name labels?  Any suggestions?

And we have mail in it already!  More pictures to come when I decide on how to completely finish it.