Door and Hamper into Hall Tree

A couple of years ago, my husband (then fiance) and I were driving up North to the upper peninsula to visit family.  About an hour and a half into our trip (15 minutes North of my Dad's house), we happened to drive by a yard sale that had a lot of household items, sinks, etc.  We decided to stop and take a look, and we found a never used, solid wood door.  It was beautiful, and at ten bucks, it was a great price.  We ended up buying it and arranged to pick it up on our way home from the trip a week later.
We are renters, but our landlord allows us to do improvements in the home.  I was thinking it may be something to use in the future, but sadly the door sat in our garage for a few years without being used.  I then put it up for sale in my last yard sale, and nobody bought it.  However, I am so glad we "saved" the door, because I happened to run across this on Pinterest:

Original on Pinterest

Oh my god, I have a door I could use for this!  I also happen to have a hamper I was using for yarn storage that would make a perfect bench!

 I went out to buy my materials:

Sandpaper

paint (I am using my Behr swiss coffee that I have on hand)

paintbrushes (on hand leftover from my table project)

2 4-inch carriage bolts

liquid nails

caulk gun 

31.5" piece of 1x8, make sure it isn't pressure-treated

2 shelf brackets, any type

Hooks of your choice
sandpaper (on hand)



First, here's the door.  Beautiful, isn't it?

I took my shelf brackets and hung them on the outer top edges of the door.  However, they still wiggled quite a bit, so I used Liquid Nails to glue them in place.

It's important to make sure the top of the brackets are flush with the top of the door. Wait for the liquid nails to dry.

Next, I used more Liquid Nails and some actual nails, and attached the piece of wood to the top of the door to complete the shelf.

After the shelf was attached and dry, I stood the door back up and attached the door to the hamper with carriage bolts.  To do this, I used some existing holes in the back of the hamper and marked the door to drill matching holes.  After drilling these holes, I put the flat part of the carriage bolt on the back of the door (the part that goes against the wall), and I put the nuts on the inside of the hamper with some washers.  I used 2 on the bottom edges and one in the upper middle part of the hamper.  I also covered the back of the hamper in liquid nails before I attached it to the door. That stuff is amazing.

Here's a full shot of what I have so far:

All I did after that was add a piece of trim to the top of the hamper for decoration, put a coat of primer and 2 coats of paint, then add the hooks.  I'm so happy with the result!  Oh, and you get a bonus shot of one of Chunk's toys on the floor next to it. I can't wait to take advantage of the hidden storage this will provide, and the organization of coats for our Michigan winter.