For Winston's Valentine's Day photos this year, I knew that I wanted to do something with a kissing booth. Thing was, I didn't have anything that even closely resembled what I was after. Enter Benjamin. After describing what it was that I wanted, he thought through what I had described, measured Winston and headed to Home Depot. Since I would probably miss a step or two, I asked Benjamin to assist me in writing this post.
Sara said she wanted to make a mini kissing booth for Winston. Being the computer oriented woodworker that I am, I immediately turned to the internet in search of plans for a kisssing booth, only to find none. I decided that I would try to keep things simple and just make things up as I went along. I ran to Home Depot and bought the following items:
3 - 8 foot 2x2's (watch out for warped ones)
1/2 a sheet of hardboard
two cans of spray paint
4 small hinges
I then measured Winston with a tape measure to get an idea as to how tall he was and decided I wanted my counter top to be 18" from the ground and that the entire booth would stand 4 feet tall. After cutting the 2x2's in half, I cut a 48x18" strip of hardboard that was then cut down into two 11.5"x18" strips and one 24"x18" strip. I cut another 48x10" strip of hardboard and cut it down into two 11.5"x10" strips and one 24"x18" strip. I used a mitre saw and table saw for all of these cuts, but you could easily use a jig saw or circular saw if you don't have any large shop equipment.
Next I framed up the center and side sections separately. Each section is 4 feet tall, the center section is 24" wide, and the side sections are 11.5" wide. Using a brad nailer and 5/8" brads, I quickly assembled the three main pieces. Ultimately Sara wanted to be able to write on the booth, so for the top support of our center section we elected to use a piece of scrap chalkboard instead of the hardboard that I had cut.
After assembling the three side pieces, I used two pair of 2" hinges to hook everything together. Making the side sections 11.5" wide allows them to easily fold together on the back of the center section without hitting one another. After the photo shoot this will allow the booth to fold down to 48"x24"x4" for easy storage.
At this point your booth is ready for painting, or you can use your scrap hardboard and any other piece of scrap 2x4 you have laying around to make the optional counter. I would recommend measuring for the counter after you have assembled the booth so that your counter is cut to be a perfect fit. I think I made mine about 6" deep and had it attach with wooden dowels so that it could easily be removed for storage and versatility.
In the end, the project had a total cost of $30 and about 2 hours of labor between coats of spray paint. A small price to pay for a prop for some super cute photos that can be spray painted again to make a lemonade stand this summer.
Total Cost: $30
Tools used on this project:
Table saw
Miter saw
Pneumatic brad nailer
Random orbital sander
Cordless drill
Color me super impressed! Love it! It makes me want to make one (except that we would have to up the cost of the project by every tool other than the cordless drill which we already own and it would take 3 times as long due to our general lack of "handiness"). :) Seriously you could probably sell these on etsy to parents and photographers. :)
ReplyDeleteUm this is super adorable! Love your creativity and your stinkin' cute little man.
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