DIY Decorative Wood Box

Hey there all! Hope you have had a great week and have an even better weekend planned! I'm back today to share a popular post from years ago with a little updated info. 

This is a perfect example of buying vs. doing it yourself. I LOVE to DIY but there are definitely times I just want to buy an item. Believe me, I say do what you want (Cartman!) -- if it makes you happy to do it yourself, go for it. If you have the money and have no desire to DIY, buy the sucker. 

I will say doing it yourself is usually cheaper. This is a good example. I was at Home Depot this week picking up flooring for the basement (more on that soon) and came across this fun new section: 

I had to laugh because they are selling pallets now! I actually think this is quite brilliant. None of them are full sized pallets, just half, but still, it's a smart move on their part. It just made me laugh because you can get them for free some places. (Please check with a business before taking pallets though -- some will gladly pass them on, others will not.) 

They had a bunch of other containers and ideas as well -- I love the cute photos they had above with ideas. My mouth did fall open when I saw the price of this one though: 

And that's when I got to thinking about this old post. My DIY wood trough is one I get asked about a ton and it's really one of the simplest projects I've ever done. I used a nail gun but you could use clamps and glue or a hammer and nails do to it as well. Have the folks cut your wood if you don't have a saw. 

I have two of these now and the possibilities with them are endless. I love filling them with greenery and lights at Christmas! They look great on a window sill or down the middle of a table -- they're great for filling odd spots. 

Last year I placed one on the bookcase I built in our living room: 

It still has dried hydrangeas in it and looks so pretty. :) My first box was free because I used scrap wood. I used cedar for that one but the other is just made with basic pine. Both stain beautifully:

If you want to build a smaller one like at Home Depot it will probably run you less than $6, if that. The beauty of it is, if you don't want to do it yourself, just buy it! Remember you'll still need to paint or stain it but I think it's great that they are carrying these items now.

Here's the original tutorial for you! This is my post from years ago so if there are old references that's why. And my boy was just a baby back then! Sniff. Enjoy…


Today I wanted to share another how-to for a project from the family room redo. I’m almost done, I swear. :) When we moved the TV over the long dresser, it meant my accessory options dwindled quite a bit. Whatever I put on there had to be long and low…and I didn’t have anything that would work.
I lived with it for a few days and then an idea came to me. I love the look of the old wood troughs I’ve seen here and there online and in antique shops. I guess they’re called troughs – I have no idea.
I just love them. :)

I knew I could make my own, so that I did. I wanted it to be longer than the TV, so I needed something 48 inches long. I went out the garage and found a scrap of thick molding used as a chair rail in our powder room:

That room has been torn apart for months now. That is how I roll.

I used that as the base, or bottom of the container, because I knew it wouldn’t be seen. For the sides, I wanted a rustic, dark wood. So I dug around the garage some more. And I found some leftover cedar from our shutter fix out front. This is why I’m OK with the fact that we can’t walk through half of our garage. I keep all my scraps for just this. :)

The cedar has a rough side:

But that was a little too rough for me, so I went with the smooth side:

But it needed a little distressing. :)

I grabbed some tools:

And my assistant got to work:

For once Mommy said take the hammer and GO FOR IT.
We had a blast. :)

Afterwards this is what we had:


And after using a foam brush to apply a quick coat of this:

(I tell you what – stain lasts forever. I’ve had this little can for YEARS.)

We ended up with a beautiful, rustic piece of wood:

I put it together like I did the DIY window boxes I showed you here. Basically I glued and nailed the sides onto the sides of the bottom piece of wood, then capped each end off like so:

The rough end of the wood shows at each end, but that’s what I wanted. LOVE. By the way, this is so not perfect. There’s some gaps at the ends where wood meets wood -- I just put the not-perfect side on the back. :)

I envisioned big puffy hydrangeas spilling out of it when I made this thing, and they sure don’t disappoint:

It’s deep enough so I could just put little cups of water in there, then place the flowers in. :)
I LOVE IT!:

I’m quite giddy about it’s possibilities too – piled high with acorns and leaves for fall, greenery and ornaments at Christmas, grass and Easter eggs…I could go on and on! It’s the project that keeps on giving. :)

I love how it turned out, and I promise you can do one of these too. This one took about 40 minutes start to finish, but I used a compound saw and a nail gun, which definitely speeds up the process.
It could be done without either though – a hand saw and regular nails would work just fine (the nails would add to the rustic look!).

One more look at my DIY trough-thingamabob:

I love how well it fills in that awkward spot! If you decide to try it, I think the cedar was about $4 for an eight foot piece. You could use just about any kind of wood though – you’ll get the same effect with some distressing and stain.

This is such a simple and inexpensive project, I just had to bring it back out from the depths! :) Have a wonderful weekend my friends!