With all the mobile devices we have in the house we really needed to find a way to organized all those cables and keep our counter tidy and free of charging clutter. Fortunately we had two old kitchen cupboard doors lying around in the garage just begging for an up cycle.

A old kitchen cupboard door becomes a charging station

What we used to make the charging station

We grabbed one of the doors, some chicken wire and wire hangers and we were ready for some serious recycling action. The first thing we did was remove the hinges and make that kitchen cupboard pretty.

Remove the hinges

Remove the hinges

We gave the cupboard door a good wipe and made a reverse decal using this image from the Graphics Fairy and printed it on some DC fix.  We cut the decal and then slapped it on and sprayed the door using Rustoleum’s Satin Heirloom White General Purpose spray paint.  You can get the full tutorial on how we made our own decal here – it was really easy.

Revealing the graphics

Giving the door some love and little bit of paint

Making the Wire Basket

Once the door was all pretty we made a wire basket using the chicken wire and hangers, which we cut and straightened.

Cut off the hanging bits

Cut off the hanging bits and straighten

We bent two of the hangers around a square pallet block to form a basic frame for the wire basket.

Use a block of wood to bend the wire

Use a block of wood to bend the wire

We had to strip our hangers because they were coated in this plastic stuff that prevents them from rusting.

Cut two and remove the plastic coating

Cut two and remove the plastic coating

To make the actual basket we used the wire frames as a template and cut the chicken wire as shown below. You need really sharp wire cutters and gloves are a must. Chicken wire hurts and tends to snag on everything. When cutting the chicken wire make sure to leave a little bit of extra wire on the sides.

Making the basket template

Making the basket template

Once the wire had been cut we inserted one of the cut hangers in “what will become the bottom of the basket” and folded each side over making sure that all the sides were reasonably straight. Using the chicken wire as a “grid” I counted up five and a half eyes (I don’t have any idea what to call the holes but I figured if it has anything to do with chickens then there must be eyes involved) and inserted the second cut hanger.

Inserting the Frame

Inserting the top and bottom “hanger” frame

Using blunt nose pliers I joined the sides by weaving the extra bits together and cutting off any sharp edges. I did the same with the wire to connect the top frame.

Folding over the tops and sides

Connecting the tops and sides

We used one of our kindles to measure how wide the basket should be and added 7 cm for luck and then cut off any extra bits.

Cut the basket to size

Cut the basket to size

To attached the basket we simply marked where the basket should go and drilled four holes into the cupboard door. We pushed the frame of the basket through the door and bent the wires at the back.

Measure where the basket needs to go on the charging station

Measure where the basket needs to go

Push the basket through and bend the wires

Push the basket through and bend the wires at the back of the door

I added one extra bit of wire at the top to make the basket a little more stable and then we inserted the charging cables. Whoo, whoo they fit 🙂

Insert the charging cables through the basket

Insert the charging cables

To hang the charging station I used one of the hinges that we’d removed earlier and some twine.

Hang the Charging station using the old hinge

Hang the charging station using the old hinge

Ta da………. No more messy, tangled counter tops, well except for the extra bits you see in the photo. Come on I had to make it look artistic and fit for a magazine layout 😀

Old cupboard door recycled as a charging station - full tutorial on the blog

Old cupboard door recycled as a charging station

Seriously though, I rather like our new charging station. Quick, easy and I only have three stab wounds from the chicken wire. I would love to know what you think.

Made with love by a Crafty Mix