Wooden Garden Display Unit Project

I’ve recently become interested in woodwork. I’ve been stocking up on my tools and equipment, although I’ve been lacking the inspiration needed to guide me to any specific project. This has changed since a visit to Battlesbridge Antiques Centre inspired me to create my own version of an old garden display unit that had a not-so-insignificant price attached to it.

I spent some time last weekend drawing the plans. Probably too much time as I decided to bring out my alcohol marker pens and make the drawing a pretty shade of teal. It gives a good idea of the look I am going for, and it will probably be painted a light teal colour once finished, possibly with a distressed look. On the image above you can see in the closeup image I am aiming to have a slight designed frontage to each section. I didn’t include this on the isometric drawing for ease and time.

Following these plans, I have bought the marine plywood pre-sized (I don’t have a band or table saw to make this easier and my manual sawing skills are not refined enough for such a project), all I need to do now is to cut the joints and piece it together. Sounds easy enough, although the plan is to use no screws or nails in the construction and rely purely on joints and external-grade wood glue to hold it together.

The use of marine plywood is to ensure it will work well outside in all weather. I will no doubt be priming and painting it as well so that should offer an extra level of protection. The marine plywood will make it harder to cut the joints as the wood can fragment more than a solid wood, but it was cheap enough and I’m confident I will get something out of it in the end - even if it doesn’t fully align to my original drawings.

I’m aiming to kick-start the build this weekend, and I’ll post an update with some progress images.