My grandpa died in December of 2014. He was a Chicago firefighter, as was my grandpa on the other side.
When he died, my mom and her siblings helped my grandma clean out the house. When they came across his license plate's I asked my mom to save them. At the time I wasn't really sure why. I didn't have a project in mind, but I knew I could do something unique with them. They were his fireman plates which made them extra special to me.
We saved them in our garage for a few years before I even touched them. It wasn't until the fall of 2018 when I thought of what to do with them. After a lot of research and Pinterest searches I had a few ideas. I thought about creating a bird house with them, but wasn't sure my mom would actually use a bird house. I saw a design for a bottle opener but that didn't really fit my mom either. I then came across a table tray/box and thought that would be perfect.
I commissioned my woodworker - Nate - and we got on our way. We were able to use some scrap wood his dad had laying around. Because we just sort of threw this together I don't have an official tutorial for you. I apologize in advanced if it's hard to follow. I wasn't planning to create a tutorial for this project and didn't take any process photo's, but I'll try my best!
We cut the first piece it into three equal length pieces (depends how big you want you box to be). This would be the base of our box. We chose three because it was closest to the length of our license plate.
We then took the second piece of wood (which was a different thickness, slightly thinner) and cut that the same length as the base. These pieces would end up to be the lengthwise edges of our box.
We then got a much smaller piece of wood, maybe 1" x 1" and cut it into two pieces to match the shorter width of the base. This piece would be used solely to help secure the three base pieces together.
Once all the pieces were cut, we sanded the rough edges to prevent any splinters.
Next we nailed them all together, starting with the base. We lined all three pieces of the base up and then placed the 1"x 1" on top along the two shorter ends, the width of the box. we nailed the base boards into our smaller piece of wood using two nails for each plank.
Once the three base boards were securely attached together, we added the long outside walls of our box, the walls. we nailed these into the outside ends of our base so that the walls rested next to the base, touching the ground. We used about 3-4 nails evenly placed along this side.
Once the base and outside edges of our box were complete we spray painted our box. I chose white because it would match almost anything (I wasn't sure what my mom would use this box for). It also complemented the license plate nicely.
After the box was dry we attached the license plates. we used long, thin nails to secure this to our box by hammering the nails through the metal of the license plate. We used three along the height of the license plate and four or five along the bottom depending on how warped the license plate was. I then sprayed an epoxy sealer on the box to help the paint last longer and we were done!
I ended up giving this to my mom as part of her Christmas gift. She loved it! She teared up a little once she opened. She even brought it to show the entire family at our Christmas celebration that afternoon. Everyone thought it was such a good idea.
The box now sits on our deck as a planter for herbs! Each time I look at it I think of my grandpa and the great man he was. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out! It was such a simple, yet amazing way to re-purpose the license plates!
We'd love to hear how you plan to re-purpose license plates! Send us a message or comment below!
Thanks for reading!
-Jen
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