My grandfather and I spent a little time in his workshop a couple weekends ago working on a few simple woodworking projects. One being a toolbox. How to make a toolbox is very simple and you can use any type of wood. We used scrap 3/4 inch pine and plywood. My grandfather was afraid I was going to paint the toolbox pink, which I almost did, but instead found some left over duck egg blue chalk paint by Annie Sloan from a previous project.

Items you will need: Wood (preferable 3/4 “), Wood glue, 2″ screws, Scroll saw, Skill Saw or Table Saw, Wooden dowel (or pipe for handle).

We started with our bottom piece first using the table saw to cut the wood. This is just a template piece of wood below to show you the measurements we used. I didn’t have my camera the day we cut the 3/4″ wood for the actual toolbox. You should have seen my grandfather’s face when I told him we needed to cut out a template using 1/4″ inch luan for the purposes of this blog post. I told him I needed something to show you all with the measurements and he didn’t even bother acknowledging me. He just cut the template out and told me to go away. hehe.

The side pieces. You will need two of these.

The outer sides where the handle will be secured. You will need two of these. We used a 3/4″ drill bit to cut the holes for the handle. Your hole will depend on the size dowel or pipe you purchase for your handle.

We drew the side pieces on the board and then we used a scroll saw to cut them out. The scroll saw is perfect for detail work.

You will need to secure all four sides to your base (bottom) with 1″ or  2″ screws depending on the width of your wood. Prior to screwing the sides to the base and each side, I used gorilla wood glue to add reinforcement. I probably didn’t need to do this but my grandfather insisted.

You can see below how I secured the sides to each other with screws. You will either need to purchase caps for the screws or simply leave the exposed.

We used scrap wood so there are many imperfections, divits and mismatched wood texture. No biggie though, it will serve it’s purpose as tool box. I’m actually thinking it might make a pretty planter holder! The wood isn’t pressure treated (which is for outdoors) so I would need to remove the plant in order to water it but that can be easily done.

As I said earlier, I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint in duck egg blue which covered beautifully.

If you are not familiar with ASCP, it has a built in primer and is fabulous to work with. I repainted an old Target night table with this same color last summer and you wouldn’t believe the transformation. So pretty!

Here is the toolbox  filled with annuals. I didn’t intend on using the toolbox as a planter but I think the flowers look beautiful in it.

The toolbox is also perfect for my tools!

I hot glued the pink tins to the bottom of the toolbox in order to keep items organized. So would you keep the toolbox as a planter or a toolbox?  Learning how to make a toolbox isn’t that difficult, right? I think I may make another toolbox and use it as a planter as well.

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