How to Build a Wine Cabinet From a Travel Trunk

Instead of throwing away that old travel or luggage trunk that sits in your closet or at the foot of your bed, make a wine cabinet out of it. This article will give you the complete step by step process fro turning the travel trunk into a glamorous wine cabinet.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• An old or used travel trunk.
• 1/2 inch oak plywood for the backing and sides.
• 1/2 inch oak plywood for the shelves and floor.
• Small nails.
• Small wood screws.
• Small pieces of aluminum channel stripping.
• wooden dowels for the shelves.
• Clear oak finish.
• Small paint brushes.
• Tape measure.
• Jig saw.
• Cordless drill.
• Wood glue for the wood dowels.
• Small hammer.
• Clean rags.
• Utility knife.

1. 

   The first step is to take the luggage trunk and lay it down with the top facing up. Then take a pencil and the measuring tape and measure out two inches from the sides of top sides of the top of the trunk all the way around the top of the trunk. You will have a square that is two inches from the sides of the top of the trunk. Then take the pencil and mark out the measurements. You should now have a perfect drawn out square on top of the trunk that is two inches from the side.

2. Next, take the drill and drill out a small pilot hole on the pencil marking so that the jig saw blade will fit in. Then take the jig saw and cut out the square out all the way around the top of the trunk. You should now have an opening in the top of the trunk.

3. Next, Take the small pieces of aluminum channel and nail them in place around the sides of the square that you just cut out. This is to cover the rough edges of the opening. Run the aluminum strips all the around the square opening and nail them in place with small nails.

4. Next, open the trunk lid and measure out the bottom of the trunk. This is actually going to be the backside of the wine cabinet when done. Then cut a piece of oak plywood to fit in the bottom and screw it to the bottom of the trunk.

5. Next, measure out the inside sides of the trunk and cut pieces of oak plywood to fit and screw them in place. These are going to be the inside sides of the wine cabinet when done.

6. Next,the trunk up longways so it will be sitting on the sides and the opening facing you. Then cut a piece of small oak plywood to place in the bottom of the trunk. This will be the bottom piece of the wine cabinet. Screw in the bottom piece of oak plywood with small wood screws.

7. Next, measure out the sides of the sides on the inside of the trunk for two shelves and be sure to leave enough room at the bottom so thast you can store wine bottles and other bottles on the bottom portion of the wine cabinet. Once you have measured out the two shelve pacements, drill out the wooden dowel holes and place the wooden dowels in place along with wood glue to hold in place.

8. Next, take the oak plywood and cut the shelves to fit in place and place them inside of the trunk on top of the wooden dowels. You should now be looking at a trunk that is standing up with an opening and with shelves in it that is now looking like a wine cabinet.

9. Next, take the clear oak wood finish and a small paint brush and generously cover all of the oak wood sections with the clear finish for a shiny new look to the wood. Now place the homemade wine cabinet in a designated place and you are now ready to put your wine bottles in the bottom and your wine glasses on the shelves. You have now just created a wine cabinet out of a used luggage trunk.

Tips & Warnings

• make sure that the trunk latch is latched and locked when raisning.
• You can also stain the oak wood before you start the building process.
• Always wear safety glasses when cutting wood with any saw.

[godfather25]

on 11/5/2009 Awesome article on building a wine cabinet from a travel trunk.

[sonni57]

on 10/28/2009 Building a wine cabinet from a travel trunk sounds like a great idea.