Blanket Box

[jb34]

So thought I should post something to make sure i knew how to do it on here. This is a blanket box I made to put behind the couch in the living room. We had thrown a blanket behind the couch. then 2 ended up back there and then they multiplied. So we had a bit of a pile of blankets not a huge eye sore but I just wanted to organize things. So you can see in the pictures it also turned into a great play area for my 2 boys and the other kids that come over to my house. Wanted more of a contrast in colors with the lighter trim and the knotty pine but it still turned out alright. Just a functional piece I made for home. thought about some pine legs with the bark on them too. But talking with the beautiful misses I decided it would look better but that would just be a place for toys and dust to accumuliate. so function over form in this instance.

[Leo Voisine]

Joe,

Honestly, I like the plain and simple, best.

I think we go a tad overboard far too many times with all the colors and ornate stuff.

Mission, Shaker is REALLY plain stuff - but people like it.

Greene and Greene is a little more ornate, but certainly not to be considered "fancy", and that style is well accepted.

Truly - your blanket box is very appealing to my eye.

[boodrow]

Joe nice lookin box , great lookin kids to go with it.
Boodrow

[Joe Lyddon]

Joel,

Nice looking kids too!! ;D ;D

[yknot]

Great lookin box ya got there! The boys are great lookin too!!
I thought of using that style for my blanket box, but she said no!

My box won't be fancy, and I enjoyed the look of yours!

[Joe Lyddon]

Joel, are you going to put hinges on it?
... needing some kind of handle too?

Did you go with Tongue & Groove or just Butts?

1 x 12 knotty pine... from borg?

Sure is pretty...

The construction sure looks simple!
KISS method in motion! ;D ;D

[Ruffnek]

It looks well built and it serves it's purpose perfectly. I like Pine furniture.

Those are sure two cute younguns, too.

[sachbvn]

I agree with Cody - I really like Pine furniture. It really does have it's place in things - it fits the piece and looks good.

Nice looking kids too!

Zac

[imahic]

Like Cody and Zac, I like pine as well. That looks great as others have stated. Just a simple box but it works. I bet those 2 boys thought it was just for them didn't they?....lol

[Doug B]

Those are really great pictures JB. Nice job on the blanket box.

[jb34]

Thanks for the comments especially about my sons. Yeah they are handsome characters. Got the best of mom and I and not the worst it seems. They are option 1 and option 2 in the winters is my time in the garage doing this stuff.

Nothing with any fancy routing, or exotic wood, or intense edges. I just wanted to post something to make sure I could. A little more too it than the old forum. So this not the most complex project. But pretty fun seeing how much the youngsters enjoyed it. I wanted a lot of knots in it. Some don't like that but I do. You are welcome to disagree with me on that but I like that look a lot. Its not my favorite wood to work with sometimes or the hardest wood but it is one of my favorites as far and how it looks at the end. Depends on my mood too though. My mood when I went to get wood for this was I wanna get stuff with a lot of character. So yeah 1 x 8 with knotty pine, 28 inches high, 2 foot deep by 4 foot wide. Glad I did it the way I did though, sure fit the beautiful misses taste too. For some reason she was more impressed with this than other projects and more eager to see it finished. She is always impressed but this time more than most. I am thinking of a walnut and hard maple pizza board next. Now that will be more expensive wood. Then a bed frame with drawers inside it for our bed with dovetails on the bed corners and drawers. Now I bet she likes the knotty pine and edges on this box over the more complicated dovetails and more expensive wood. I probably will too. I bought some more exotic wood today. You guys will probably see a gloat from me on here today or tomorrow. But I saw people making points in the shop forum on here about how you don't need a huge expensive shop to made really nice stuff. There were some impressives shop's in there. Mikes was probably my favorite. But as far as the work coming out of those shops I enjoy seeing everything everyone has done on here. Its all inspiration to me to see where other woodworkers minds are going creatively on things. Well I also think the same is also true with wood as you guys were saying on shops. Character is important in wood. Sometimes you don't need really expensive wood to do something that looks really nice. Sometimes it comes out better with good old knotty pine.

No cover Joe. I didn't think long on that. Thought it would look cool to have a lid and I had ideas on doing it but like my natural legs the cover lost out to reality. Blankets get tossed back over the couch so this just catches them. Had some teenage girls staying at our place this weekend. relatives of the beautiful misses. Our house is seen as some kind of woody disneyland it seems. So we have a lot of people over a lot. That is nice I am glad people are very comfortable and enjoy our home but teenage girls can be trying. So you see how neatly folded everything was in that box. yeah that didn't last one night with all the teenagers here. But atleast they tossed stuff back in the box. If there was a lid lazy people would forget to open it. Well except me since I had to make this. Also with a lot of little ones around well fingers get pinched in covers. So that wasn't going to work for me. Yeah we have a lot of little ones around and they all think its just for them. Really when you have little ones everything you have and do is for them. So I guess they were right. The blanket in the middle is the one my 4 year old has slept with since he was born. I made it. yeah I sew some too( how masculine is that?). He is fond of it. Not in a carry it everywhere way anymore but its still his comforter and he still calls it blankey. He was pretty proud to have it in the box for the picture.

[Joe Lyddon]

Feb 21, 2010 23:43:13 GMT -6 jb34 said:

So yeah 1 x 8 with knotty pine, 28 inches high, 2 foot deep by 4 foot wide.

No cover Joe. I didn't think long on that. Thought it would look cool to have a lid and I had ideas on doing it but like my natural legs the cover lost out to reality. Blankets get tossed back over the couch so this just catches them.

If there was a lid lazy people would forget to open it.

Very good Joel.

I guess the fifth picture from the top is showing it upside down... ;D It looked like it was a lid to me... etc. ;D ;D

I understand your thinking... It's just more practical w/o a lid...
... and you don't have to worry about fingers getting smashed or pinched! ;D

I'm trying to figure out the detail of the outside corner covers...

Looks like all corners are mitered and are covered with an "L" molding of some sort...
Could you elaborate on that?

The real strength comes from having the pieces screwed into the 1 x 1 corner blocks & along the bottom. Looks good!

Thank you... I think you did a wonderful job on it...

[Doug B]

Hey JB, LOML and I both love knotty pine. One of my very first woodworking projects several (or more) years ago was to make all new kitchen cabinet doors and we used knotty pine to make them.

I am very unhappy with the workmanship on those doors, but they are still beautiful and only recently has LOML given any indication that she will let me replace them with some better made cabinet doors. But, they will have to be made using knotty pine once again, just better built this time

[jb34]

Yeah I did a little L pieces on the outside edges. I doesn't show as well in the pictures and it wasn't as much a contrast as I wanted but I did that to dress up the edges by just some trim and also to use some color contrast. It was not as much of a contrast as I wanted but I was still ok with it. I used the screws because of the 2 little guys in the box in the first pictures. I foresaw this becoming a play area. Remembered mom and dad getting a new fridge when I was young and for the entire summer the greatest toy I had was the huge box the fridge came in. Just a cardboard box that got beat until mom or dad tossed it when we were not looking. So yeah had to go with screws and I drilled them flush to the wood. But used them for durability knowing how popular a play area this would be. Already been a fort about 5 times in a week. Throw a blanket over the top and instant fort. I am not a bif fan of screws and try to use as little metal as I can. But just felt I had to on this piece.

Doug I grew up in northern minnesota with a lot of people making very rustic very appealing furniture out of pine and birch. They both appeal to me and I guess that was a big influence on me. I am quite fond of the look and the area I am from. Having that look in my house in contenting to me and makes me feel good when I am home. Very warm feeling to it. People sure get a lot of money for those pieces up there too. I started thinking when I was in my 20s about buying something and I don't even remember what it was. I think a coffee table. But once I saw the price I thought well I would rather make it myself, do it better than this, and it will be fun. Here I am still making furniture and other wood project and even having people offering me work in that area. With the contenting thing I mentioned, a lot of people are over and comment on that. But also I have made stuff for family and friends of course. You all know how that goes. The most for my mom. I just made a leaf mirror for her. You might have saw me post a similar one in the other forum. But when I last visited her and she had it up I told her you know mom I am glad you enjoy the stuff I make. But I also sure love giving it to people I am related or know because then I can go visit my pieces and still enjoy them after putting work into them.

I would like to go back and do a few pieces with what I know now doug. We still use them a lot but its like well if I would have know that. I will say the same in 10 or 15 years I am sure too.