Scavenger Chic

When life gives you Shutters – Make a Cabinet!

• By Joan
• November 3, 2016
• 16 Comments

Sometimes I decide to do a project based on a need… I need a new coffee table, or one of my sons needs a headboard or a new desk or a new lamp.

And sometimes I get inspired to do a project when I have an abundance of an item.  Usually it’s a pile of pallet wood that gives me the creative spark but lately my inspiration has been this stack of shutters that I picked up from a local salvage yard.

Most of the shutters are odd sizes, wider or shorter than the average window. It would be hard to find a house that these would fit on, but for DIY projects they are perfect.

So far with my stack of shutters I’ve  made a coffee table top and I used the slats from the other half of that shutter for  shadow boxes for my Railroad Foundry parts.

What’s up next? A cabinet with a shutter door.

You’ll need a  quick trip to the lumber yard, or if you have scrap lumber, that’s even better.

Start with 4  –   8ft   2×3’s

2  –   6ft    1×10’s  or 1×12’s depending on how deep you’d like your cabinet shelves

2  –   6ft    1×2’s

thin plywood for the backing

You’ll also need a bit of crown molding for the top,  pallet wood,  scrap 2×4’s, scrap 1×4’s, scrap 1×3’s wood glue and screws.

Before getting started, if your shutter has a lip on it, cut that off so you have flat edges to work with.

Start by laying out all your wood around your shutter.  The 1×3’s are the supporting posts which double as the feet.

I used a scrap piece of wood as a pattern to mark all 4, 2×3 legs.  Cut with a chop saw.

The total length of the 4, 2×3 posts will be   the length of the shutter + the width of a 2×3 + the width of a 2×4 + 6 inches

For the front, cut 1 2×3 (excess chopped off of the legs) the width of the shutter plus a 1/4″.  Do the same with a scrap piece of 2×4.

You’ll need 3 more of these pieces for the back…your choice, 2×3’s or 2×4’s.

The 2×4 will be sitting on top of the shutter (not shown) while one of the 2×3’s will be underneath the shutter. The reason for the wider piece of wood at the top is that it will be partially covered by crown molding.

Cut the 2 side 1×10’s (or 1×12)  the length of the shutter plus the 2×4 and 2×3 widths. That will probably make more sense if you look at the picture below.

Cut 6, 1×2’s the width of your side panels.  Cut 2, 1×3’s for the bottom edges of the side panel and 2, 1×4’s for the top edge. (2×4 is not shown on top of the shutter in the above pic)

Use nails and lots of wood glue to attach all the side pieces together.

Now is the time to really start putting this thing together.  For my main joints, I used a kreg jig and more wood glue.

The back is attached in the same manner as the front (kreg jig and glue) but with extra bracing in the middle.

Match the tops and use more screws and the kreg jig to attach the sides to the front and back pieces.

I couldn’t remember why I took this picture but it seemed important at the time.  It just hit me! Sanding…sand all those rough edges including the legs.

I nailed a thin sheet of plywood to the back frame.

I don’t know if you can tell, but along with the kreg jig screws at the top and bottom, when attaching the sides, I screwed in more screws thru the 2×3’s into the sides hitting the 1×2’s. These were in the front and back.  In the front, I eventually countersunk those screws and filled in the holes.

I cut 8 more 1×2’s for shelf supports.  Sand the ends, level, nail and glue into place.

This is a good time to paint the interior of the cabinet before installing the shelves.

Cut pallet wood for your shelves. Of course you could also buy wood, but I prefer the free stuff. Just make sure you give the pallet wood a good sanding.

Paint the shelves and use finish nails to nail into place.

A little bit of black and teal chalk paint on the edges is the start of my layered finish on the exterior of the cabinet.

Also installed crown molding around the top of the cabinet.  Those nails will have to be countersunk. nail holes filled and sanded and any gaps filled in with caulk.

The full exterior of the cabinet was painted with a linen colored chalk paint.

More pallet wood planks complete the top.

The shutter got a coat of gray chalk paint and the full cabinet was lightly sanded and finished off with a clear wax with just a bit of vintage tinted wax mixed in.

A little bling finishes off the cabinet.  Here you can see a bit of the teal and black peeking through the linen chalk paint.

I had these vintage hinges in my pile of junk but T hinges would also look great with this cabinet.

I know it’s a lot of steps but none are particularly difficult. In fact, I see a shutter cabinet in your future!

With that pile of shutters look for more projects in the near future. Have a fantastic weekend.  See ya Monday.

Shared at DIY Salvaged Junk, Metamorphosis Monday,

Talk of the Town,

I was featured at

Related posts:

Double Shutter DIY Wardrobe Upcycled Shutter, Floating Frame Fun and Junky Shutter Birdhouse An Easy Project with Pallet Wood and Shutters