Anyone with dogs can relate to the joys of coming home to a sick dog and garbage spread around the house by a mischievous pup. This garbage holder is a compact solution that hides the garbage can and recycling bin, as well as giving additional counter top space. Printable version here.
Rating (decode with the handy-dandy guide here):
- Time
- Money
- Tools
- Experience
- Strength
- Risk
- Suckage
Tools:
- Drill
- Saw (Miter is preferred, but it’s possible with a circular saw)
- Pencil
- Stud Finder
Material List:
- 4 – pine 1x4x8
- 1 – pine 1x2x4
- 1 – 4×8 MDF
- 1 5/8″ deck screws
- 2 – 12″ piano hinges
- 2 – knobs or handles
- 2 – 15″ x 26″ scrap of hardboard or 1/4″ plywood
Step 1: Cut the Lumber
Cut your lumber to size using the following cut list:
| Piece | Material | Width | Length | Thickness | Quantity |
| A (Sides) | Sheet | 14.5 | 34.75 | 0.75 | 2 |
| B (back support) | Board | 3.5 | 36 | 0.75 | 3 |
| C (bottom trim) | Board | 3.5 | 37.5 | 0.75 | 1 |
| D (top trim) | Board | 1.5 | 37.5 | 0.75 | 1 |
| E (garbage base) | Sheet | 14.5 | 18 | 0.75 | 2 |
| F (garbage sides) | Sheet | 14.5 | 14.5 | 0.75 | 4 |
| G (top door trim) | Board | 3.5 | 18.75 | 0.75 | 4 |
| H (side door trim) | Board | 3.5 | 22.75 | 0.75 | 4 |
| I (door panel) | Sheet | 15 | 26 | 0.25 | 2 |
| J (top) | Sheet | 37.5 | 15.25 | 0.75 | 1 |
Step 2: Assemble the Garbage Holder
I used my kreg-jig (pocketholes) to assemble mine, but you can always screw through the sides and deal with the screw heads being visible if you don’t have a kreg jig. Make sure everything is as square as possible or it doesn’t come out looking quite right. Also, if you use MDF it NEEDS to be glued and screwed, or it has next to no strength. Screws alone will pull out.
Step 3: Paint the Base
I am new to the land of furniture-finishing, so I read a LOT of pages online. My main motivation was this one: Erin Spain. There are a few options with how to finish it out. For all of them, you need a blemish free base, so the first step needs to be filling holes and sanding.
If you had visible screw heads, or holes, you’ll want to cover them with wood putty to give you a smooth surface for painting. Wood putty has a longer-than-expected curing time, so I typically will fill with putty and then wait until the following day to sand.
You won’t need to sand the MDF, but you will need to sand the pine. Start with a coarse grit, then move to a medium, then a fine grit. I hate sanding, so this is where I stopped, but I know some who will hit it with an even finer grit at the end. Use tack cloth after sanding to remove the dust (and in my case, dog hair).
Interior House Paint
This is the method I used, as I already had a ton of house paint on hand. Once my piece was thoroughly sanded and dust removed, I primed it with 2 coats of Zinsser 1-2-3- Primer. Between layers of paint, I lightly sanded with fine grit paper to remove any bubbles.
One it was thoroughly primed, I used two coats of my wall paint (Sherwin Williams Duration Paint) on the exterior of the bin, and cheap, plain white latex paint on everything else. Because this is a garbage holder I wanted to make sure the surface the cans sat on was easy to clean. I did this by using Miniwax Furniture Wax.
Once it is dried, I buffed it with a soft cloth and got a hard and smooth surface. It’s kind of hard to notice a big difference once you have the wax on just by looking at, but if you rub your finger against the surface you’ll hear it “squeak” and it will hold up far better than unfinished wall paint.
Furniture Paint
Furniture paint is much more expensive than interior house paint, and I can’t actually find a tutorial that recommends furniture paint that I can link to.
Polyurethane
If you opted for plywood, you have the option of leaving the wood grain visible. To stain pine, make sure you use a wood conditioner first or it will come out very blotchy. Once your stain has timed to dry, finish with a couple coats of polyurethane (or “poly”) to give it a nice durable finish.
Step 4: Finish the Top
Wood Flooring Top
I’ve always dreamed of a kitchen with maple counter tops and blue base cabinets, so I used this garbage holder as a trial run. I picked up some maple flooring from Lumber Liquidators for a s iteal, so I used this as my counter top instead of traditional butcher block. Starting at the back, I used a pin nailer to hold the first board in place. Each piece was glued down with wood glue, and then the edges were trimmed it with 1/4″ x 3″ poplar stained to match maple.
Painted MDF
If you want to stick with the original material list and keep this a cost-efficient project, you can just paint the MDF top like you did on the side. I found “finishing wax” helps make normal, interior house paint work for furniture projects, and I would recommend that before trying to use painted MDF as a counter top area. It won’t hold up like a true counter top will, so try to keep traffic lighter on the top (decorative instead of functional).
Plywood
Plywood can be stained and have a layer of polyurethane applied that will make the top more functional than painted MDF and will give you a more traditional butcher block top. You can either make the base out of MDF and do a plywood top or make the whole thing out of plywood. You will need to finish the edges of plywood. The easiest method is to pick up some either ¼”, ½” or 1”x3 (or thinner if you like that look) boards and nail them around the edges. I used ¼” x 3” to finish the maple flooring top I did.
Boards
The top is 15.25”, so you can use 1x6s as the top, which gives it an ¾” overhang. This will be the hardest method to have a perfectly flat top, as most 1xs will have some degree of warping. If stained, it will come out similarly to the end table I created (post coming soon!)
