DIY Acrylic Display Case

Hello, friends! I'm recovering from a 2 day garage sale this weekend. I am still amazed at the amount of junk treasures I can pull out of closets when it's garage sale time! I sold lots and even tried to unload my house while I was at it (literally). Someone stopped and asked if I knew of any homes for sale in the area and I said "YES!...mine." We're not officially listed yet but they asked if they could take a peek and I agreed. Now, if only my kids' rooms hadn't of been disasterous. And gosh, it would've been nice if I had cleaned up the breakfast dishes. Oh well, that's what you get in the spur of the moment around here!

Moving on...
 Last week I showed you a similar project and this week I've adapted it to be a display case.

Like those mitered edges and the swirly paint job? Makes the perfect shelf for whatever your heart's desire, if I do say so myself.

An overview shot to help you appreciate the openness of the case.

Miniature jars made the perfect "knick knack" for this display. Just grabbed a few sprigs from the bushes and wolla, it's done.

Easy paint effect...make straight lines of each paint color then make circles with your brush to blend them all together. I even painted the screws. The gold ones were expensive so why not spruce up my cheap silver ones with a little glam? Same look, less dinero.

I like the 'glass' on glass look here.

Another fun way to use this display: cookies, kids and frogs (something we have a plethora of around here).

Ready for the "How To"? 

It's super simple. Here's what you'll need...

Supplies:

 1x2x8 Furring Strip

One of these will do the trick. Decide how long you'd like your shelf and cut to size. We mitered the ends then glued two pieces together for added dimension and thickness.

8x10 Lexan Polycarbonate Sheet

Two sheets. You can purchase many different sizes or even have the handy dandy men at Home Depot cut them to size for you. The previous post used 8x10 sheets and this one used 5x7. The thicker the sheet, the better the end result.

Hex-head screw

Only tip here is to make sure your screws are long enough to provide the needed space for the wood pieces 'floating' inside the two pieces of plexiglass.

crown bolt

Other supplies: paint, saw, drill, wood glue.

Helpful hint: Plexiglass can be tricky to drill holes in without splitting the plastic so take your time and use a sharp drill bit. We watched several instructional YouTube videos on the process before tackling our own project. 

The basics: Drill holes, the size of the screws, in each corner of the plexiglass. Push screws through each hole and lay flat. Arrange wood pieces on one piece of plexiglass then slide the second piece of plexiglass down over the screws bringing it down to lay on top of the wood. Use bolts to tighten. Make sure to tighten bolts strong so your wood pieces don't slip out when brought to upright position. 

Obvious steps I left out: Paint your wood pieces desired colors and let dry prior to 'squeezing' between  the sheets of plexiglass. Paint the screws and let dry before adding bolts. Wouldn't want to strip off your paint by bolting too soon!