Table Centerpiece - Old Toolbox

Built to resemble an extra long toolbox, I made this centerpiece for our Christmas dinner.

I was given an example from a website. Built out of pine, then distressed with a hammer, chains and a few negligent tosses in a the flower bed, the box was vintage throwback to what I can only guess was designed to hold panel saws over 26” long.

The outer dimensions were 10.5” wide x 38” long x 10” tall. No fancy joinery here. I used tongue and groove boards for the shell and some old decking remnants for the ends. The ends were shaped a bit and nailed on with wrought iron nails.

After waxing it, the females decided it needed to be stained, so I can’t take credit for that. We actually applied about eight coats of walnut stain OVER what I thought was the final finish. I applied conditioner (thinking it would take a stain eventually), then was told paste wax was all that was needed. We actually put the stain over the wax without any removal. It actually dried and, frankly, created a more even stain on pine that I think conditioner alone would have created.

Nice, simple, decorative project. Plus, I’ll get to take it back home and use it for it’s intended purpose – lugging my Disstons around.

I made a small vid about the process:

-- If a tree falls in the neighbor's woods, and no one is there to hear it...can you take it home, mill it and turn it into a coffee table without your neighbor making a sound?