You already know that April showers bring May flowers, but did you know that April showers also mean.. the start of UMBRELLA SEASON!  And if your family is like mine, you have extra umbrellas for every occasion. We have them in the closet, each kid carries one in their backpack, I have a bunch in the car, one in my gold bag.. Umbrellas EVERYWHERE! And the last thing I need is wet umbrellas dripping all over my house.

So as my entry into the Power Tool Challenge (This month was a One Board Challenge), I designed a simple umbrella stand to corral all the stray umbrellas and to give them someplace to drip off when they came home wet.

I put it right outside the front door, on the front porch, so they wouldn't even set foot in the house. 
This is a SUPER EASY (like, you could do this in under an hour.. easy) project.  Perfect for anyone who doesn't want to commit to a long difficult project.

Make sure you visit the other one board project ideas from the other members of the challenge team.

Supplies:

• 1 8foot 1x8
• 2 packs black corner braces
• Nail gun
• 1 inch 8g brads (or whatever gauge your nail gun requires)
• Sliding Arm Miter Saw or Table Saw
• Wood Stain
• Foam Brush
• Drill or Driver
• Waterproofing (Polyurathane, Thompson's Water Seal etc)
• Small square metal or plastic container no bigger than 6x6

Cut list:

(1) 6-1/2 x 6-1/2 square
(4) 20 inch long 1x8s

Assembly Instructions:

1. I stained all my pieces before assembly. I just think it is easier this way. You could assemble your piece first and then stain it if you wanted to.

The stain I chose was "Driftwood" by Rust-Oleum.

I purchased some beautiful prime pine boards without any knots and I didn't want to cover that up completely. I only used one coat, but you could stain or paint your umbrella stand any color you wanted.

2. Assemble the box by staggering the ends.  In order to keep the box completely square without having to rip down any boards to account for for the width of the wood, I alternated butt joints around the outside of the box.

This assembly method means that a single seam line will show on each side of the piece, but that was okay since that was the only way all the sides would be completely symmetric.

4.  Add decorative brackets.  I considered stenciling or monogramming the umbrella stand at this point, but instead decided on black metal brackets on the top and bottom corners instead.  This are pretty much only decorative, but it makes the piece seem a little more finished and gives it some visual weight.

5. Seal and add a water catch pan.  Since the umbrellas will be wet when placed inside the box you may want to seal it with a clear waterproofing.  You could also use a polyurathane and stain in one and save step.

Finally, you want to add a plastic or metal container to the bottom of the box to catch the water that runs off the umbrellas. A piece of tupperware or aluminum can would work great for this, and the closer to the inside dimensions the better!

Now that is all there is to it! 

Super fast and easy.. yet practical and attractive.  My kind of power tool project!