Ye Olde Inn

3 huge paint scores this week at thrift stores. Got 50+ craft style acrylics for $10 that required sacrificing a couple shelves. Couple days ago found a bag for $3 with 19 model airs, a few game colors and 9 model master paints. Used up any vacant space I had with overflow . Then today I found 20 tamiya style paints for $5 which will be great for mixing. The current case was a junky wall mounted display piece I snagged at a thrift store and revamped it to hold my paints. Going to build a case with some more depth. Documenting here in case it inspires anyone or in case I forget how I did something lol.

I am limited in height to where the base of the wall light fixture is. Which will make the fitting vertically compact, as I want to make 7 levels. 4 levels for mini paints, 2 for craft paints, and one for stains. With my height restriction the wood that will go across has to be no more than 12mm thick. Making the shelf depth 12cm allowing me to go 4 deep with the model paints and 3 deep with the craft paints.

Got all of the wood cut to size of 12 cm deep. Originally I was going to use thin plywoood but found due to the width of the holder it would have sagged over time. So after a bunch of searching was able to find some western maple that was only 7mm thick and much stronger.


Had to build a dado spacer and an attachment to the saw so I could use blockstops to ensure all the slits align Then did a test run before cutting into the main pieces


Only leaving a couple mm clearance to ensure everything fits

All the slits cut and shelves cut to fit.


Made a groove on the underside of the shelves to keep the cover in place


Due to the slats being only 7mm thin I may have enough room on the top to make a couple of very shallow droors for holding brushes

Man I am SO jealous, this looks amazing!!

Sizing up all the pieces I need to cut to construct the pull out paint holders. Model Paint holders will hold 2 rows of 4, or 3 rows of 4. craft paint holders will hold either 2x3 or 3x3. Citadel holders will be 2x3.


Pieces cut for the model paints and craft paints


Sanded down the back on all pieces first with 80 grit, then 150 and then 220. Painted them all with a chalk black for the first coat. Then Cut the font of the sides to bevel in so the paints are more viewable from the front


Wiped all the pieces clean and once dry, painted again with a darker black as well as the sides this time. Then varathaned it all. Once dried lightly scuffed the surfaces with 400 grit sand paper


Roughly what one of the 3x4 model paint holders will look like once assembled without the front piece

All of the paint holders outer core assembled


Cut out holes for the final top shelf and them glued and screwed the outer frame together


Trimmed all the shelves to size an added all the paint holders on the assembled shelf. Think I am going to separate each level into 2 sections by using the leftover of the shelves wood , to eliminate the chance of any shelf drooping over time.

Wow, that is shaping up to to be really Awesome!

Love the paint trays!

Cut a bunch of cubes for keeping the paints from shifting or falling over if there is a blank spot beside it . Also rounded the top corners down to help the paints fall into place easier.


Front plates cut and edges sanded to a rounder corner. Painted all of the backs and bottoms black. Then the front painted in the color of paint it will hold.


Haven't glued them on yet still need to varathane and skuff them all before attaching. But leaned them up to get an idea how it will look.

Glued the shelves in place and decided to add dividers half way through all of the shelves for a couple reasons. So they don't droop in the middle over time, and also so the cover plates are easier to put in being only half the width


Dividers in, and with all of the pull out paint trays which are now fully assembled and finished


Forgot to make the trays for the stains so getting the last trays done