Shabby Chic Phone Stand - Made at 173

This post linked to Power Tool Link Party at First Home Dreams and A Home in College Hill.
In the last year or so, I've gotten  into this thing of making stuff from scrap wood left over from different projects around the house.  

I've made tool boxes, a shoe stand, an umbrella stand and a potting bench.  For years I've wanted a phone stand for our entryway but I could never find one just the right size.  See, I wanted one just so tall and just so wide so that it fit in just the right place.  A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to build one out of scrap wood and make it to the exact size I wanted.  Here it is:

Ha!!  Just kiddin'!  I could only WISH to make one that nice!  But...this is the picture that inspired the phone stand I envisioned.  The truth is, I simply don't have the skills to make one that nice, but like I said - it was my inspiration.  So I started with a couple old 2x4s I had used on an outdoor project a million years ago.  

(2x4s after being ripped)

After initially starting with 2x2 legs, I realized how clunky the stand was looking with the legs that size, so I ripped them down to 1x1.

(1x1 legs)

I used a some more scrap wood and, using my newly purchased Kreg Jig, made pocket holes to start putting the stand together.

Then came a scrap wood top and two "shelves".  I put this picture in mainly to show off my 1956 Atlas table saw, the one my uncle calls, "The table saw of death," due to its lack of ANY safety features.  It's old but it's done every job I've needed it to!

(The Table Saw of Death)

Just to fancy up the phone stand just a bit, I routed a simple profile into the top:

Once again, time to put it all together.  After standing back and staring for a few hours (okay minutes, but you guys out there know what I mean), I realized it needed just a little something more.  OFF TO HOME DEPOT!!  I picked up $3.00 worth of "rope" style trim, and glued it onto the shelves.

Construction phase complete!  From there it was a matter of finishing.  Here's what I used:

1.  Because the stand was made of pine and had several knots in it, I worried about bleed through.  So I primed the while thing with two coats of Kilz primer.  One coat would likely have been sufficient - but I obsess.

2. I was looking for that "shabby french cottage chic" look that seems so popular right now, so I painted the stand with Valspar's "Snowy Dusk"  which gave the stand a creamy white.

After the paint dried, I took sandpaper to some of the edges and sanded just barely to the bare wood.

3.  Then I went over section by section with Minwax "Jacobean" stain.  I wanted to use antiquing glaze but test runs on other scraps of wood didn't get the dark look I wanted on the parts I had sanded bare.  The stain worked great, I just had to be careful not to get too far ahead of myself.  The stain darkened the bare wood and left a beautiful patina on the paint.

Also notice how I left some of the stain in the crevices of the "rope" applique.  Tickled me to death!  Not literally of course, that'd be kinda weird.

4.  Once the stain dried thoroughly I had to decide on the finish coat.  I thought about polyurethane, but that has a tendency to yellow, and I really didn't want to mess with the finish and colors the paint and stain had accomplished.  So I applied 6 coats of paste wax.  I learned pretty quickly that if the can says to wait 10 - 15 minutes for the wax to dry before buffing - wait the 10-15 minutes!  Don't rush this step!  

And it was done.

My only camera is on my phone, so the pictures really don't show the colors very well, but I love the way it turned out!  Okay, so it doesn't much look like the inspiration picture, but it'll do and it fits EXACTLY where and how I wanted it to!

And that's the scrap wood phone stand made at 173.