So lets talk about the process. I only paid about $20 for the scrap pieces of cedar first cuts. These are the bark sides of a tree as it is saw milled into dimensional lumber, but at that time I had no means to make those pieces dimensional lumber. Thankfully while trying to come up with a design that would please my wife, I laid out all the wood pieces looking for the one with the most wood available and dreaming of ways to place them together, she walked by during the process and indicated that the live edge rustic look I laid out was really nice. Thank the heavens… Cause I was getting frustrated and about to head back for more pieces.

With a design now in mind, I had to come up with a way to get a straight edge on my pieces. I’ve built plenty of jigs in the past for projects so coming up with a solution was more about materials available and less about what to build. My sled did a great job. After a few modifications, I still use it on smaller pieces. So, I cut down several pieces for the sides of the box and cut the door’s glass frame using live edge pieces. It was a long time since I made a frame for anything, I brushed up on my skills and made a double side sign. I wanted to test which of two looks would suit the frame better. I had a clean, flush, and prefect corners side, then I had a chaos side. The chaos side went better with the rustic look my wife like and that is the style she told me to use.

With that decided, I tried several options for the finger joints used at the bases corners. Made a jig for the table saw, but the joints looked to clean and I had difficulties getting the edges to meet up correctly. I decided to make them by hand. If only I had known what a flush cut saw was back then… instead I used a miter hand saw to cut the groves and a filed sharp screw driver to chisel the waste away. The final look gave the cabinet a rustic handmade quality I was looking for. I glued the base together and used brass furniture nails to secure 3mm plywood to the back. Then I cut the groove for the glass and mitered the frame pieces. It took quite a bit of time going back in forth to get the alignment to match the piece of recycled glass I was using. I learned a great deal about the art of planning better. I didn’t want the glass to move at all once framed, but I also needed space for the frame to expand and contract as the wood moved in response to the weather. I need you to not check that the corners are square on that project. ;)

My wife insisted on burning the picture and name into the top since it was her gift. So after buying the wood burner we both played with it burning silly things in scrap wood. While she burned in the message I installed magnetic strips to hold the glass door shut.

The used a polyurethane to finish the wood. You can see my shop buddy, Scotty, close at hand while we waited for it to dry. I applied more coats than I do today. But the extra shine and depth the finish offered rocked. Another lesson learned when mounting the cabinet on the wall for the first time. I used a thick picture frame wire the first time. As soon it was mounted, I stepped back to admire my work. The door’s magnet strips disengaged and the door swung open, the project started to tilt and almost fell off the wall as I stopped the motion just in time. Jill was a true sport and let me take the cabinet back home to figure out a solution. I definitely want Jill to be able to open the door and add to the display, BUT without the cabinet moving on her. Plus the door just opening was not good either. I removed the cheap adhesive magnets and instead installed a buckle style cabinet latch. After that I stewed over the mounting problem.

I needed to fix my bathroom shower so the project took a backseat. I ended up with a hole in my shower wall on the outside near my bathroom sink. So instead of replacing the dry wall in case my plumbing skills did not work, I bought a medicine cabinet that required me to put it together (I didn’t yet feel comfortable enough to build my own.) That cabinet used a French cleat to mount on the wall. Brilliant! With a design modification to the cleat so that the heaver door on Jill’s cabinet did not tilt the base, I had a solution. I installed a cleat on the wall and cabinet plus I added a wood bar four inches shorter then the project’s width near the bottom. It not only supported the cabinet to keep the project parallel with the wall, but also added another point to prevent tilting when a matching piece was installed on the wall.

Thank Goodness I am way better at woodworking 3 years later. And Thank You to my wife for continuing to give me challenging project to build you.