Wooden ammo boxes have been an essential  part of many vintage re-purposing projects. They’re super versatile, really strong and an upcycled ammo box can add a bit of an industrial feel to your home decor. There are so many ways to re-purpose them too. When we saw this one with a broken lid, I just knew it would ideal as a little kitchen cupboard.

We have a really small holiday home down at the South coast and I’m always trying to find new ways to create extra storage. The upcycled ammo box would fit right into our quirky decor style and she was the perfect height and width.  Are ammo boxes “shes”? It’s such a manly thing, maybe it should be a “he”?

An old wooden ammo box

How Upcycle An Ammo Box Into a Kitchen Cupboard

The ammo box had definitely seen better days.  The lid was warped and broken and she was sooo dirty. We cleaned her up using a wire brush and then scrubbed her with some hot soapy water , mixed with some vinegar. I needed a cupboard with a door, so before we did anything else, we had to fix that lid. We don’t have a steamer so I couldn’t do anything about the warping, but we do have Gorilla glue 😉 All we needed to do was measure the width of the lid and cut two planks accordingly. The planks were cut about 3 cm shorter than the width so the cupboard door could close.

Fixing the door

We placed the warped lids pieces “cup side” down and then glued and screwed the planks in place. I’m not sure what the technical wood working term is, so I’m hoping “cup side” make sense. It just means that we put the planks down so the curved warping faced downwards like an upside down cup. I misplaced our collection of old door handles somewhere, so we had to make another plan. Given the rustic look of the ammo box a branch seemed like a good idea. We cut off any unnecessary twigs and bits and marked where the handle needed to go on the door. We did we made the little cupboard in our loo. You know the one that the unicorns spat on 😉

Find a branch and mark where the handle needs to go

Because the branch we used had two side branches growing out at an angle, we had to drill the holes in the door at the same angle.

Drill at an angle

We used some more Gorliia glue and wood screws to attach the branch handle to the lid.

Screw and glue

Once the branch handle had been added, we applied a matt varnish to the soon to be “recycled ammo box” and made some shelves. Sometimes I’m really lucky and the pieces of wood we cut for the shelves fit perfectly inside. In fact we had to hammer these in. These babies ain’t going nowhere 😉

Making the shelves

The lid was attached with hinges that we re-purposed from our room dividers. We just sprayed them a dark copper color to match the ammo box.

Add the hinges

To make the screws a little less obvious, here’s a really neat trick. Spray a small amount of spray paint into the lid and use a paint brush to paint the screws.

Touching up the hinges

That’s it. The upcycled ammo cupboard is ready for the kitchen.

Ample Storage

We left the original latches and rope handles on the ammo box. I think it adds to the rustic-ness and makes the cupboard look charming. What do you think?

A Rustic Upcycled Ammo Box

I find upcycling an ammo box extremely rewarding. Just the idea of taking something that could have been used to harm others and turning it into something that’s functional and good makes me feel happy inside.

If you like the idea, don’t forget to pin it for later.

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Have you upcycled ammo boxes before? I’d really love to hear what you did with them? We have three more in the garage and I need some inspiration. And as always wishing you a lovely week that’s filled with love.

P.S. Before I forget, if you’d like to make something similar or prefer to buy rather than DIY,  we’ve got you covered Disclosure: Clicking on the links below, means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us come up with more crafty ideas to share with you

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