Home Decor and DIY: Wood Tilt-Out Trash Can Cabinet

Wood Tilt-Out Trash Can Cabinet

Until a few weeks ago, we had a nice stainless steel trash can. Nice…but still a bit of an eyesore being a trashcan and all. Then one day, I went to step on the pedal to raise the lid and the pedal broke right off. So we began looking a new trashcans and I just wasn’t loving anything I saw. Plus, the nice ones can be surprisingly pricey. Then, I saw a friend of mine ask for recommendations for where to buy a wood trash can cabinet on Facebook and it was totally one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?!” moments. So I started searching plans online and then asked my husband if he could build one for me.

I’m so happy with how it turned out and we no longer have an unsightly trash can in the kitchen!

My husband works 60-70 hours a week which doesn’t leave much time for the hobbies he’d like to do. But when he’s home much happier with projects to work on so I try to keep a “fun” honey-do list for him.

We settled on these plans from Ana White (if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the post on Ana’s site, just before the comments you can download a PDF version of the plans).

Here are the areas he changed the plans:

On page 7 of the PDF plans, the Kreg Jig Holes are shown on the top board. This is not correct. They should be on the side boards and then your screws drill into the top piece. If you place the Kreg Jig holes on the top piece as shown, there is no wood for the screws to drill into.
The exact door measurements are not given in the PDF, as she tells you to just make it about ¼” smaller than the opening, so don’t forget to buy the sheet of pine to build it.
He made two decorative notches the at the bottom.
He did a non-beveled style door. Instead, we opted to do a simple flat frame around the door using wood shims.
He added chains on the sides so the door wouldn’t fall all the way open (as shown below).
We choose a pull style handle for the door.

After it was built, it was my turn to take over. He builds things, I pretty them up. So, I got to work doing the staining with a Weathered Grey stain (by Rust-Oleum). I stained with an old rag, going with the grain of the wood. In hindsight, wearing latex/rubber gloves would’ve been smart…I ended up having to use mineral spirits to get the stain off my hands when nothing else would work!