Introduction

Why the endless fascination with hardware stores and home centers? Why are home craftsmen and craftswomen, and even the least experienced DIYer among us, drawn to the local hardware store as if in a trance? It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a mom-and-pop operation crammed between the ice cream shop and pharmacy downtown, or the big box home center that has its own exit off the interstate. The allure is there regardless and even when you don’t actually need anything. But what is that allure? Just what is it about hardware stores?

The answer can be summed up into one word: possibilities.

Those possibilities come in two flavors—piece-by-piece and complete packages. A hardware store is actually a little like a well-stocked supermarket: you can buy all the ingredients you need to create something really wonderful that is completely yours, or you can buy an already completed creation. The “already completed” purchases, such as tool chests, lighting fixtures, and screen door kits, are certainly interesting and useful, but they are just one part of this book.

In fact, this book is about all the bits and pieces that can be put together in new and ingenious ways to create home furnishings and accents that are at once useful, fun, unique, and economical. That includes both fully complete structures like prefab cabinetry and materials that can serve as one component in a greater structure, such as vinyl or wood crown molding. This book is about recipes that make the most of all those bits and pieces you might find on a scavenger hunt in a home center and hardware store aisles.

And although the projects in the pages that follow may use home center staples in ways that they were never intended to be used, those projects don’t include arcane materials. Everything incorporated here can be found at any well-stocked hardware store. We’ve been careful not to include special-order items, or those that come in sizes not commonly stocked. The focus here is on fun, not frustration.

The emphasis is also on creativity. As you read through these projects and pick one or two (or more) to tackle in your own workshop, keep in mind that these are explicitly designed to be adaptable. You can change measurements to fit your own home spaces and needs, swap out different materials as appropriate and available, and finish your creations in a way that suits your own sense of style. Never fear to customize any of these. Of course, you can always craft them just as intended. The designs have been developed to suit a wide range of interior styles and looks. Although it’s the nature of hardware projects to look more industrial than traditional, all the projects are meant to be subtle enough that you don’t have be a fan of steampunk to appreciate the looks.

These projects are also designed with the novice in mind. None require specialized expertise or tools, and they can all be built with just a modicum of attention to detail, patience, and elbow grease—resources every homeowner has at his or her disposal.

Every aisle in a hardware store offers the promise of some new, ingenious creation just waiting to be designed and built.

Beyond the design styles, the lineup of projects has been developed to include something for every room in the house. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a new workspace in the corner of a guest bedroom, a totally organized all-in-one structure for your out-of-control laundry room, or even a sturdy arm chair that can do your living room proud and find a home on the patio as well—you’ll find all that in the pages that follow. Oh, and much, much more.

So pick a creation that meets your needs and preferences, and then use it as an excuse for yet another trip to your local, oh-so-appealing hardware store (or a lost Saturday afternoon in that home center down the way). Fun and home improvement satisfaction in equal measure await you in those aisles.