Croteau's Custom Cabinetry

Fancy Wall Shelving:

Here are a couple of quick 2"x4" round decorated nick-knack shelves. It's the small articles that seem to sell at the craft shows.  These little round shelves take about 30 minutes each to make.  They form a simple T with photo hooks at the back to hang them on the wall.

Cedar Wheel Barrow Planter:

My wife wanted something nice to place her flower pots in to spruce up the garden.  She was looking through a magazine and asked me to build her a cedar wheel barrow planter.  I had a look at what others have done at various web sites and designed my own creation below.  The wheel is 6" diameter made from 3 pieces of laminated cedar fence boards.  The box is also from the fence boards but I had to glue together the sides in order to gain the height.  The handles and legs are made from 1" cedar deck boards which appears to be the easiest to find here in Ontario.  Overall dimensions are about 38" long x 15" wide x 15" high.

Simba hates to have his picture taken.  Here he is coming out from his hiding spot under the cedar trees in the back yard.  This is the final resting place for the flower wheel barrel planter.

Cedar Blanket Chest:

A friend of mine requested I make him an aromatic cedar blanket chest.  The bottom trim has been cut from one piece of 3 1/2" cedar with fancy mill work to indicate the feet.  That white strip goes all the way around the three sides of the chest. The piano hinge works best for this type of work as it displaces the weight of the heavy lid evenly along the rear edge of the chest.  I placed two hinge stops both left and right on the sides, again to help keep the lid up safely while working inside of it.  The handles are balanced so you can pick this up and it will not tip on you.  Notice the inside is NOT finished at all... the wood is bare.  As long as there is no finish inside, you will always be able to smell the cedar aroma, which is part of the reason this wood is so very expensive here. The white scrolling goes well with the white contrasting cedar.  The overall dimensions came out to 15" deep x 25" high x 36" long.

Check the details of the corner scrolling work.

Outdoor Window Flower Box:

My neighbour wanted a flower box outside of her front window.  This is made of 7/8" eastern white pine and measures about 6' in length.  The bottom measures 5" wide and increases to 6" wide at the top.  I placed a bit of quarter-round on the face to brighten up the look of the project.  It is finished with wood conditioner first to stop the sap from extruding out of the knots then a flat white paint.  I mounted the unit by drilling holes in the bricks and using cement screws.

Indoor Kitchen Window Shelf:

A customer wanted a shelf to fit directly under her kitchen window over top of her sink.  She wanted it wide enough to place plants and other nick-knacks on it.  This is made of 7/8" #1 Eastern white pine and measures 7" wide x12" high x 40" long.  I placed some reinforcement corners along each leg.  With the little hearts near the top, I'm not happy with the scroll work on the bottom of the legs though... I think I should have cut in deeper to use some more of the wood or made the heats larger on the sides.  Each leg has been recessed over the back splash so it fits directly along the wall.

Here is another version of the window shelf.  This one measures 6" wide x 40" long with 9" legs made of cherry wood.  I have curved all the corners and used a 1/2" round over bit on all parts to soften the look a bit. It's not so chunky in my opinion.  I placed a wedge underneath the top to connect the legs providing support for the expected weight.