DIY Kitchen Storage Boxes

*This is a guest post by my husband, Jeremy, who loves woodworking and builds us beautiful and functional stuff for our home. Because so many people commented asking about our kitchen storage boxes, I’m so thankful he took the time to put together this DIY tutorial for you! This post contains affiliate links.

By Jeremy McClements

I have wanted to join the fray and add a DIY post here for a while now. I love building and creating projects for our family. I take ideas I find other places and modify them to create things that make life easier and our home more functional. (Although sometimes my projects end up making life more complicated and me less functional, but that is another post for a different day as I am not ready to admit that I have a problem yet.)

There’s something satisfying about having a newly finished project that makes accidentally drilling through your right hand worth it. Plus, it makes the story better if a scab is involved and you look like you lost a battle. I’m just sayin’.

Since so many people have commented on the hanging boxes we have in our kitchen, I decided that would be a good first project to share, and it’s something anyone can put together quickly. When we decided to take everything off our kitchen counters, I came up with a plan to store produce and typical kitchen counter items that you don’t want to bury in a drawer or cabinet and never find again.

These are easy to build, can be done in about an hour (plus paint time), and work with scraps you may already have on-hand. You can modify the boxes to be any size you want. It’s also possible to make a few small changes and add casters to the bottom to make crates that roll under a bench or bed… but more to come on that at a later date.

Bottom line: you can do this. So let’s make this little dream come true!

Shopping and Tool List:

• 2 – 1×3 – 8 feet long
• 1 ¼” finish nails or screws (like Pro Crafter Premium Wood Screws)
• Nail Set (buries nails before wood filler – I used 3/32″)
• Wood Filler (I like Plastic Wood)
• Sand paper – 120 grit
• Measuring tape
• Pencil
• Hammer or Nail Gun (I used a Hitachi nail gun with this compressor)
• Screw Driver or Drill (I use a Dewalt drill)
• Miter Saw (I use a Hitachi miter saw)

Cut List:

• 6 – 1×3 @ 13″
• 2 – 1×3 @ 14 ½”
• 4 – 1×3 @ 7 ½”
• 4 – 1×3 @ 5 ½”
• 2 – 1×3 @ 8 ¼” (end to long point, cut at 40 degrees off square. See picture for Step 4 below.)

General Directions:

Step 1: Build two rectangles with the 13″ and 7 ½” boards

• If you have a nail gun use 1 ¼” nails and knock it out quick. If you don’t have a nail gun use 1 1/4″ wood screws and counter sink them in. (You will fill all holes with wood filler later).

 

Step 2: Connect two boxes above with 5 ½” boards on top and bottom corners, making them flush to the outside and front and back edges.

 

Step 3: Add backs to the boxes by attaching the remaining two 13″ long 1×3’s flush to the back of the box. Add one on top and one on bottom trying to keep the gap between them consistent with the sides of the box.

 

Step 4: Attach angled 8 ¼” pieces to each side with the 40 degree line flush with the bottom of the bin.

 

Step 5: Attach front 14″ pieces to the angled section.

Step 6: Fill nail or screw holes with wood filler and sand smooth.

Step 7: Sand outside of finished surfaces with 120 grit sandpaper

Step 8: Paint (I painted the front with chalkboard paint after painting the entire piece so we could write silly things on them if we wanted to… we never really do, but it still looks cool.)

Step 9: Hang under cabinets by drilling 1 ¼” wood screws down through cabinet into the outside pieces (5 ½” pieces you added in Step 2)

• One screw in each corner area should be fine here, but you know your cabinets better than me.
• You can also rest them on a back splash and screw into wall

Step 10: Take all the crap off your counters and throw it in your new hanging bin. Enjoy your cleared off counters!

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