Handy Mandy Series #2: Tilted Trash Can
For those of you that don't know, I have three dogs; Rosko, Zoey, and Mr. Beagle. They are sweet little fur balls that each have their own personality. We rescued each dog from a specific situation, and they've been a major part of our family. Mr. Beagle is a sweet lovable lump; the poor guy is definitely overweight and relaxes most of the time. However, there are plenty of times when his hound dog genes kick into full gear and his nose gets the best of him. This always ends in one of two ways......he digs a hole and escapes so he can chase a rabbit, or he gets into the trash can. Let's focus on the latter.
Exhibit A:
Now, this is very mild in comparison to what it has been.
Let me back up a bit. In 2014 when Bruce and I got married, we got Bed, Bath and Beyond gift card with a good chunk of change for us to spend. We were exploring the aisles trying to determine what we should get for the house. Then we stumbled across the trash bin aisle. There were so many, but one caught our attention. It was the Simple Human brand, and it had a pet lock. The intention was a pet couldn't lift the lid and get into the trash can. We learned too that if it fell over, the lid would stay on. We instantly threw it into our cart. It worked too! At least, it DID....for a while. Mr. Beagle came along shortly after, sweet little boy he is. His nose gets the best of him sometimes.
When we moved to Florida and settled into our new home in 2017, Mr. Beagle and the other dogs got smart. Something about being in this house made the trash can more desirable. They learned they could knock the trash can over and sometimes the pet lock would come undone, and they could dig away in the goods. They also teamed up and could chew or paw it apart. Our game plan was to pull the trash can out into the garage each time we left the house. The flaw in that plan was my ADHD brain never remembered to do it. I cannot tell you how many times I would come home with a baby on my hip and an arm full of grocery bags to find wrappers, old food and coffee grounds all over the floor. There was one day when I had JUST done a craft with Madden, and I had thrown all of our old paint, paint-covered baby wipes and scraps from the project in the trash. When I got home, there was not only old food, coffee grounds and torn apart wrappers...there was also red acrylic paint smeared EVERYWHERE, even deep down into the grout. Insert me ugly crying and furiously texting my husband about what HIS dogs did (when they are naughty, they are only his dogs, not mine...LOL).
It wouldn't matter if I had just fed the dogs a full gourmet meal of all of their favorite foods, provided them with their favorite treat and bone, and given them an exclusive ticket to camp out on our bed all day. These guys would still feel it necessary to get into the trash can. Sometimes I swear they do it to be spiteful. There won't even be anything good in there....nothing of dog-value. Yet, day after day, I would forget to move the trash can to the garage, and I would come home to a mess. I reached my limit one day when I decided enough was enough, there must be a solution. I put my Handy Mandy hat on and began to brainstorm.
Take a look at my kitchen.
It isn't very big. The cabinet space is limited. Our game plan is to redo the cabinets and the island and extend how many cabinets there are. However, that is not an option at the moment. I couldn't sacrifice a cabinet for just a trash can. I would lose so much storage, and storage is already slim to begin with. There is a weird gap between the counter and the last cabinet near the garage door. It has always been there, we have NO idea why the gap was there (there are a TON of things in this house that have made us do the confused-puppy-head-tilt, just like this gap). We have always placed our trash can there. It seemed logical, and had easy access to taking the trash bags out.
I knew I could fill that space somehow. Based on the dimensions, it couldn't be a trash can that pulled out forward and was flush with the countertop. There wouldn't be a manageable trash can that we could use to fill such a narrow cabinet. I began researching different styles of cabinets and came across the tilted trash can. The pictures below were my inspiration.
These are both saved in my
Home Projects Pinterest Board. Both of these trash cans were inspired and/or created by Ana White. She has some amazing tutorials for DIY projects, and was excited to seek inspiration from her.
Ana White offers a tutorial for you to follow to create this just as she did. She provides the materials, tools, cuts/angles and pictures of the steps along the way. It is a beautiful tutorial that works for visual learners. The picture of the red cabinet is an example of what is shown in the tutorial. Pictures, the name of the board, and the measurement....simple and easy to follow. The hard part for me was I needed specific dimensions to fill the gap in the cabinet/counter area. The link to Ana's tutorial can be found
here.
After gathering inspiration, I used this tutorial as a guide and went a little rogue. I used the same materials, I had the same tools, and just needed to be specific in my measurements.
TUTORIAL: DIY Tilted Wood Shelf: Handy Mandy Version
Materials:
- Two 1 x 12 @ 6 feet long
- Two 1 x 3 @ 6 feet long
- Two 1 x 2 @ 4 feet long
- One 1/4 plywood 2ft x 4ft
- Narrow Hinges (any kind, it doesn't have to be fancy)
- Handle or Knob
- polyurethane coating in Clear Satin
- steel or nickel plated small chain (I got the length inside the plastic box. nothing fancy)
Tools:
Optional:
This tool helps you align your cabinet holes to keep them straight and level. Drill bits are included!
Procedure
My procedure closely mimics Ana White's tutorial. I am going to break down the steps for how I put everything together. There will be similarities, but my cabinet needed to be customized for my space.
Step 1: I started by building the frame. After measuring and cutting with the miter saw, I used pocket holes and 1 1/4 pocket hole screws to secure it together. I make sure it fit in its place before moving forward.
2 inch finish nails would work as well, if you aren't familiar with pocket holes. This project helped me learn pocket holes; I didn't know how to do them before I started. I practiced on scrap wood I had around the garage to make sure I could do it without mistakes.
Step 2: Next, I made supports on the back. My recommendation is to absolutely do a support on the top. The second one is a good idea but I would wait and do this at the end. I learned the hard way that the placement of the second one interfered with the thickness of the trash can. I ended up moving it later.
Step 3: After the back support was complete, I added the front trim. I cut 2 pieces of 1 x 2 the same length as the front. I added on to the very top to create an extension to the top, and a piece horizontal to frame the top. I also added a piece of 1 x 2 horizontal on the bottom to frame it. To spice up the look, you could get trim board, or cut a decorative pattern into it. Ana White does a pretty trim on the bottom. I chose to keep mine plain, as I still do not have a table saw and didn't want to risk destroying what pieces of wood I had left. I will insert a picture of Ana White's to show you what it looks like. I apparently forgot to take a picture of this step!
Step 4: Next, it is time to build the door frame! Using 1 x 3 boards, I build a rectangular frame, and secured it with pocket holes and 1 1/4 pocket hole screws. Getting the measurements correct was tricky. It was easy to measure the side pieces, but determining the middle pieces was trickier than predicted, mostly because I was overthinking the whole process! Once I got the pieces cut, I laid it on the floor to make sure it looked good. Then, I assembled with the pocket hole screws!
Please ignore how cluttered my garage is! It is a current work in progress.
Step 5: This is the step where I truly went rogue. In order to get the tilt effect, there needs to be a piece of wood connected to the frame that is the same length as the bottom of the original frame. Then, there needs to be 2 pieces of wood cut at 45 degree angles. I measured and cut a 1 x 12 to create and connected it to the bottom of the door frame. I attempted to leave a gap, as suggested in the AW tutorial, but frustration sunk in and as I mentioned before, I went rogue. I planned this part out for a long time before committing to connecting it with screws. Once the bottom 1 x 2 was secure, I used the remaining 1 x 12 wood to make two 45 degree angles pieces to secure the sides of the frame. It came out a little something like this!
Step 6: From here, I measured the inside of the back of the door to apply the plywood as a panel. Once I had it measured and marked, I cut it using my circular saw. Make sure your circular saw blade is up to par; mine definitely needed a finer tooth blade. However, it did its job! I secured the panels with 3/4 finish nails.
Step 7: From here I added the hinges and made the holes for the handle. Then, I began to paint! I painted it white to match our kitchen cabinets. I made sure to take the hinges off before I painted. I did 3 coats of the white paint. When the paint dried, I added a polyurethane coat, and allowed that to dry fully before doing anything else.
Step 8: Once everything was dry, I assembled the hinges, handle, and put the pieces together. Then, I connected about 8 inches of chain to each side of the door. This will prevent the door from opening all the way, providing security from the door smashing down onto our toes. Here she is!
Again, please ignore the disheveled state of my garage. She is a beauty! We immediately put her to work. At Lowes, we found a simple trash can for $15 that measured 22 x 15 that fit perfectly. We had enough storage room next to the can that we could put our rolls of trash bags from Sam's club in the cabinet as well. Double storage! Here she is inside the kitchen.
Now, as beautiful as she is, I couldn't tolerate that gap. It drove me bonkers. I forced myself to relax for the night and set out to fix it the next day. The cabinet itself was still fully functional and beautiful. My OCD is still cringing about that gap.
The next day rolled around and I toyed with the hinges and took out some screws and replaced them with longer screws to secure them better. I learned that the 45 degree angle boards needed longer screws to screw it better. The gap came from a combination of the hinges being screwed too tight (there was a slight variation in my measurements and the boards were not flush) and the weight of the trash can not being accounted for. The weight was pushing too far forward rather than laying flat. To fix this, I added the second piece of 1 x 3 that was intended as a back support and connected it to the back of the second 1 x 12 that connects to the door panel. It balances the weight of the trash can perfectly and eliminates that gap. The only flaw is the cabinet is no longer flush with the other cabinet. This is going to be fixed with a piece of trim board. Pictures to come as I update it.
Final Product
Here she is! Finished, balanced, and just a minor trim board needing to be added.
We haven't had a single issue with dogs in the trash can! We also have enough room to store the trash bag rolls next to the can, so replacing the new bag is simple. While I am my own biggest critic, I am still so pleased with the outcome! I have some minor flaws to work out when it comes to DIY, but that is what makes DIY so fun. You get a custom built project that you can love and appreciate. DIY projects like this help make your house a home!
COMMENT AND SUBSCRIBE
Follow my posts on the left hand side for more DIY and Handy Mandy posts! Comment down below if you tried your own tilted trash can, or if you need help with another project that is similar! I would love to help any way I can.
Handy Mandy
No comments:
Post a Comment