My Dollarama Charging Station

The finished look!

My mom and I went to Dollarama today to pick up a toy for Anoushka the cat. A brief word about Dollarama - the name is very misleading. Nothing costs a dollar anymore. Prices have increased by as much as 300% in some cases, and while that isn't a large sum of money to pay, it is proportionately a huge spike. Nevertheless, to Dollarama we went and as I wandered the unlabelled aisles looking for pet supplies I came upon a tile of fake grass. I recalled a segment of Pure Design in which my favourite designer created a charging station using a simple wooden box. Inspiration struck, and when I eventually located the craft aisle, I was able to procure a wooden tissue box suitable for my project. I didn't find a toy for Anoushka (at least not something she doesn't already have) but here's how I made a simple and attractive charging station to keep my wires tangle-free.

Charging Station (Total cost $4.52 including taxes)

• 1 grass tile ($2.00)
• 1 wooden tissue box with sliding bottom ($2.00)
• a drill to make holes in the tissue box
• green paper (I had some at home)
• good glue
• scissors
• 15 minutes of your time

1 inch hole drilled along the bottom of the length

The first thing I did was to drill two 1 inch holes in the tissue box. Hole #1 goes in the middle of one of the lengths (this will be the back) and hole #2 goes in the middle of the removable bottom of the tissue box (this will actually be the top.)

I cut the green paper to the exact measurements of the removable bottom, and also cut a hole in the same place as hole #2 so that the charging chords could pass through. Then I used a few dabs of glue to stick the green paper onto the removable bottom. 

Maybe it's a toy after all.

With the removable bottom (now covered in green and with a hole in the middle) slid into the box, it was easy for me to determine how much grass to use, so I cut it accordingly. The grass tile had fairly large spaces between the rows of grass so there was no need to cut a hole or pull out of any of the grass inserts. After lining up and cutting, I simply dabbed some glue onto the bottom of the tile and placed in on top of the green removable bottom (now the top.) This way, if you look closely at the charging station, you don't see any wood between the rows of grass - just green. 

I let it dry for about 10 minutes before feeding any wires through the holes, and then set it up in our bedroom. It looks totally awesome. If anyone tries this, please let me know how it works out. You can always make more holes, or make them bigger if you have more wires. Enjoy!