vintage toolbox charging station

This weekend our family went to a Saturday market where I laid eyes on this little vintage, pink toolbox. As soon as I saw it my mind immediately thought “charging station”. We have two IPhones, an Ipad, an IPod, and a video baby monitor that all get charged on our kitchen counter leaving a big tangled mess. I’ve actually been saying for months that I wanted to find or make a charging station but I didn’t find anything that I loved or inspired me until that fateful moment at the market when I knew I was going to make a vintage toolbox charging station. After a little negotiating she was mine!

Here’s a before picture. First, I cleaned out the bottom by blowing out the dirt and debris with an air compressor.

I wanted the charging station to have a false bottom to hide all the cords underneath. Micah found an old plank of wood in the shed and cut a piece the right length and width to fit inside the toolbox.

Next he cut the board in half and cut out a big knotch to fit the IPad in, as well as three holes for cords to go through. The center hole doubles as a cord hole and a handle to pop the bottom out to get to the cords.

I sanded the wood pieces.

Here I am sanding away. I should have been wearing eye protection! I actually did right after this picture was taken because it dawned on me that I had forgotten. An eye patch is not a good look on me!

Then wiped them down and stained them espresso brown. Once the stain was dry I also sprayed on two coats of a satin clear finish.

This is a vintage tool box which means there is some rust. I mentioned that I was going to cut a piece of cardboard to line the bottom of the toolbox when Micah appeared with an old rubber mat. (Seriously, what else does he have in that garage!?!)  With a razor knife we cut out a piece to fit in the bottom of the toolbox protecting all of our electronics from rust particles.

To hold the false bottom up we cut down two scrap pieces of trim to line length of each side of the toolbox. The side rails were white so they were sprayed black to visually disappear against the black rubber mat.

Micah used an electric drill with a metal cutting step drill bit to cut a hole in the back for the cords to go through.

*Highly recommend buying one of these drill bits…one bit cuts a variety of hole sizes.