Making a box sounds easy, right? That’s a good project to start on!
I love wood fires and had a stupidly designed metal firewood holder that was pretty but left a mess on my family room floor and could barely hold 4 or 5 logs. I measured the logs and decided it would be nice to have a separate area for kindling and smaller logs, as well as a top shelf for paper and matches for starting a fire.

We added a backboard for decoration and then a copper violin and scroll on the backboard. The copper had come from a Taco Bell that was being torn down. Can you believe someone was just going to toss that in the dump? The violin is life-size. We’ve made a plywood template for the body so that part was quick to cut out, although a bit tricky with those tight curves.
I caulked inside the box so all the wood debris would stay inside and not get on my floor. Then I stained the whole thing. That’s the first time I’ve used wood stain.
I would have probably just randomly screwed this together but you’ll notice that the screws are all evenly spaced. That’s Marlo. He’s teaching me to be more detail oriented!
I should have written this up sooner because I’ve now forgotten what tools I used. I know there was a band saw involved, a grinder, a nibbler to cut the pegs on the violin, and an impact driver. And a sander, of course. Lots of sanding to make that wood smooth.