Shadow Boxing

This year our family decided to do homemade gifts for each other. I drew Emily's name and, at Karen's suggestion, I decided to make a shadowbox.

I first looked online to learn about shadowboxes. Turns out there are lots of types with varying complexities, but a shadowbox is basically a piece of furniture that has one to many boxes to allow for storage and display of small collectibles. They can hang or stand on their own decoratively. I was really disappointed with the pictures and plans I found online. Plans were sparse, some cost money, and none appeared to be what I wanted. So I decided to make my own plans. Here is what I came up with:

After designing the layout, lengths, etc. I had to label each wooden piece to make sure I bought the right amount of wood and kept track of each piece during the creative process. (numbered circles on each piece in the plan)

My first and biggest problem was figuring out how to fit all the pieces together. I decided to go with a dado cut at each intersection, and make the pieces fit together like a puzzle. I had to purchase a dado blade set for my table saw and figure out how to make the cut fully square and at just the right depth.

Example dado cut

Two pieces of wood with these dado cuts fit together in a perpendicular fashion, and with enough of these cuts in just the right places, you have the start of a really sturdy shadowbox. This picture shows the back nailed on, but it was stand up just fine without the backing, because of the way the dado cuts fit together so snugly.

I was really happy with the way it fit together overall. Here I'm planning the top shelf and positioning of the doors. My designed called for heart shapes cut out of the doors, but I decided they looked nice without.

Piecing together the shadow box, before anything was nailed together.

Here is the shadow box and hung in Emily's room, with a few of E's creations on display.

It took a lot longer than I had thought it would, but overall I'm really happy with it. Love you, Emily!