DIY Tutorial: Making a Charging Station

I love my Blackberry, I love my digital camera, I love my bluetooth, but I can't stand all of those ugly cords hanging around. I've been looking at charging stations, but they're so dang expensive.

Here are a couple I've looked at:

Pottery Barn $79

Red Envelope $89.95

I really didn't like those prices.  So I recently found this jewelry box at Goodwill and thought that it would be the perfect solution to my problum.

First, I sketched out where I wanted the opening for the cords to go.

Currently I don't need the opening to be so big, but I'm trying to plan ahead.

I'm not sure what electronics will be added in the future, so I made the opening big to accommodate anything.

Next, I wanted to remove the wood directly below the cover to make room for the jigsaw.

The space also needed to be cleared for the power strip.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to remove.

I used a hammer to remove the small wood piece.

Then I was able to punch out the bottom piece with my hands.

Now there was plenty-o-room for the power strip and cords to go.

Next I drilled 2 holes in the top so that the jigsaw blade would fit.

Just in case you haven't read my previous posts, I'm blessed to have a boss with a contractor hubby who lets me borrow his tools.

I used his jigsaw to cut out the rectangular piece.

Yummmm!! Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE power tools???

Then I used my chisel to even out the edges.

And used the chisel again to take off the front panel.

I removed the hardware from the front and filled the holes with wood filler.

I turned it over and found the center point to drill my hole for the extension cord to go through.

I used my drill and new attachment to make the hole.

How pretty is that??

Then I just gave everything a good sanding. This next part made me laugh.  It confirmed that I'm definitely a DIY GIRL.  To sand in those hard to reach places, I used something I already had on hand. 

It worked GREAT!  After I was done, I was curious to see if it still worked. 

Yip!  Still worked great on my nails!

Ok... so after the sanding, I primed it, and gave it two good coats of Heirloom White.

Ready for it???

Just a reminder of the BEFORE:

And here's the fun AFTER:

I'm going to look for another power strip that is a tad bigger, but for now this will do.

So a $1.50 investment = A Reasonably Priced Charging Station (and a happy girl)

I'm participating in Met Monday and DIY Day