Make a plywood Laundry basket – fancy column design with router and stain.

I made a Plywood laundry basket!

I did not like the amount of space most laundry baskets took up, so I started to calculate how much space I needed for my dirty clothes using an old milk crate.
After I knew how much room I needed, and the space I have to store it, I started to cut out the pieces.

I first made the basket solid, and stained it, but it weighed too much….

These 2 pieces will become the smaller sides of the basket.

I needed to draw a nice pattern onto the wood where I wanted to cut it. This much plywood weighs a lot, and even more with clothing inside. I had to make it lighter.
I made the circles using an oversize washer I have, and made the straight lines with my long yard stick or ruler.

I then drilled holes inside the parts I wanted to remove. This will allow the jig saw blade to fit in.

Here is what it looked like after I cut out one of the pieces.

Now the other one is cut out.

I made a similar pattern onto the larger sides.

Then drilled out all the holes for the jig saw blade again.

I used a round over bit in my router to create round columns into the left pieces. The right piece was just cut out with the jig saw.

This is how it looked after the router. It needs a bit of sanding and work to make it more round.

All this work created quite a pile of saw dust. I like to sweep this up and put it in a 5 gallon bucket.
I use the saw dust when I spill oil from my car doing oil changes, and other maintenance.

Now the 4 sides of the basket have the columns cut out and routed round.

This is the start of a coat of stain. I like the 2 tone look better, but too late to turn back.

I now screw together the bottom and the first 2 sides.

Then I add in the other 2 sides. You can compare it to a normal plastic laundry basket.

Plenty of room for 2 weeks of clothing for myself.

The final product. Nice and tasteful.