DIY: Shutter Component Holder

Welcome to Zigzags, thanks for stopping in... if you've visited a few times you know I LOVE pallets, if you haven't well now you know -- I love pallets. I also LOVE shutters. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of shutters she had hanging out in her garage--what a gift!!! Oh the juices that started flowing! 

I used them for wall art on a wall that had been annoyingly empty for months! It made me smile. Then we packed up and moved to Phoenix... had to get creative again....

My pallet love attempted to be clever and simple to hold all our components after we mounted the tv to the wall. NO. It just looked messy. Plus Cooper-our doodle has an amazing obsession with putting his ball somewhere he has to struggle to get it out of. We found 5 balls under it in under a week of it sitting like this...lol. He's special ;)

So I started thinking huh maybe I could use those shutters to hold the components... and somehow utilize them in their original function. This idea was brilliant in my head! In actuality what I thought would just fall right together, well it fell right apart! {Took forever and required more hands than God blessed me with}

I planned out what I thought would work and then went to town. I'm not going to give you step by steps exactly, but I will try and explain the best I can. Its tricky when you just roll with the dilemmas and forget photos once you get frustrated.

I used two wider shutters for my front and back sides, 4 of the smaller widths to create the top and bottom. This will be visible in the final photos. Then I had one shutter that had fallen apart and all the slats were out. So I cut it down to the width my end pieces would need to be.

Instead of visibly connecting the smaller ones to create the one large one I used the dowels that came out of the broken shutter :) Drilled a hole in the opposing shutter and hammered them together. I did this on each end and in the middle for more strength. 

Now I had my 4 pieces to create my rectangular box and had to decide how to attach them to each other. And I couldn't have hollow ends so I re-crafted the slats that had fallen out by cutting them down to the height I needed and carefully tapping in a little nail to act as my dowel. Then I glued them into the pieces I had cut to size for the ends. 

Of note--almost everyone of these shutters "fell apart" in this process. I should have added wood glue to each piece and let them dry overnight before I proceeded--Impatient. So instead of being patient I got to put the slats back in 800 times--- A VERY FRUSTRATING PROCESS! Thus the not enough hands part- thank you to my partner in crime for saving me from tears a time or two!

Oh and my clamps-wonderful $3 purchase :) They were one of those I don't need these now, but I should certainly have them on hand purchases-- Paid off!

Take a peak inside on that far shutter I used a 1"x2" piece of wood to drill the back onto the top and bottom. You can also see my sides here too. I used the smallest nail I could to attach the ends on, plus wood glue. 

I removed one of the slats in the back so I could weave in my component wires. 

Components in place. I don't love it sitting on the speakers. But it's this way for 3 reasons. 1. At that height it covers the wall plug perfectly 2. The front shutter hangs lower than the rest, so it can't sit on the floor 3. It's high enough Cooper can't hide his balls under there :) Mom wins! I hope to eventually achieve a floating look when we own our home, but for now it sits like this. 

Favorite part:  I totally forgot to mention that front shutter... how did it go on you ask?! The small shutter on the front top still had its hinge pins and the front piece still has hinges so it just slid right on. Now I can hide the components and still open it to put in my movie! Bonus since I used shutters the remotes work for the hidden components too!!

Total Cost: Shutters-Free, Nails-had them, Glue- had it, Clamps- had them, 1"x2"- had them

FREE-My favorite

I LOVE this project and once again these darn shutters bring a smile to my face everyday! Thanks Pam for gifting them to me.

What do you think?!

--ZZB