Alt title: The Thing the Woodpecker Nibbled Before it Could Be Photographed

Alt-Alt title: The Thing that Wasps Found Before I Could Finish This Post

Dry storage space in the garden wasn’t really an issue until this house, where most of our hand tools are stored nowhere near our garden and either forgotten and left in the rain, or unused; for years, I’ve wanted a small container that would keep my hand tools and assorted necessities out of the rain–or just a shelter, that would have worked too–so once the fence itself was built, I whipped this up one weekend, a simple cabinet with hinged door, to satisfy what we were missing. As the above alt-titles suggest, I’m not sure how long it’ll last before the woodpeckers smash it to bits, and the wasps definitely made a nest in one of my gardening glove fingertips, but those details aside, this tiny storage unit fits right into our space.

I installed it on the inside of one of the posts of our garden fence. No, there’s no plan to follow (it’s in my head), and no, definitely not a work of art, but simple and effective and I love what it does, and does so well.

It’s size is 10″w x 8″d x 24″h, and it’s mostly constructed out of some remaining cedar from when I built shelves inside my closet. Another scrap board for the roof, too. Design-wise, I kept it super simple, and assembled it only with wood glue and some small nails because it wouldn’t be holding anything too hefty. Inside, I added in a small shelf to vertically divide the space (and also to mildly prevent those long side boards from warping after rain and snow show their stuff).

The hinged door was a straight-forward design–the width of the door and the back panel are the same, so it made sense to have the door fit right into the cabinet. It was the fewer-cut route too, always a popular one for the DIYer embracing convenience, and I figured it would also be less inclined to flop around in the wind. Speaking of lazy, I briefly planned on it having a plexi window on the door, but decided plexi wasn’t worth an extra trip to the store and more time/money. Simple narrow hinges were the only item I purchased.

I used a router in two ways for this project: with a straight bit to etch out spaces for the hinges;

And a rounded bit to ease off the inside edge of the door so that the door would open more easily without a “square” inside left edge.

The roofline needed to be nothing more than a piece of wood to protect the interior from excessive moisture, and before attaching it with 4 finishing nails, I cut the top of the roofline to be flush with the vertical board on the backside (you’ll see what I mean in a photo lower down the post).

Anyone else remember the beetle knobs that I picked up from Anthropologie in 2012? Throwback. They lived on bifold doors in the old house, and I reused one of them here. (Also, Potatoes in containers. We harvested them already.)

I used the same natural vinegar + steel wool stain that I use for all of the things, and obviously it worked perfectly, that’s why I love it so much. Upon application this is what it looked like, but remember at the top of the post (and in the next few photos) you’ll see that it darkens with time.

I installed it on the post in the garden not long after the previous photo was taken, and added a few nails to the inside back wall to serve as hooks, too.

In addition to a pair of gloves and a few simple hand tools, it was nice to have spare seeds stored out there for extra plantings (except that the aforementioned wasps knocked the cukes into a spinach container garden sitting beneath the cabinet, and now we have a bunch of rogue plants doing their thing).

Garden 2017 is killing it. If you want to see how we built that fence, check out this post. And just for fun, here’s a tutorial showing how I made my favorite-ever raised beds. And because the evolution of the garden has been fun to see, check out 2013 (crushed by a tree), 2014, 2015, and 2016.