Robert Mitchell Jr.

I’m always working and doing things according to the plan.  Sometimes I’m such a freak about my goals — writing goals, workout goals, fitness goals, personal goals, business goals — that I forget to take a break.  Not this weekend.  I decided to do a fun art project on my extra day off.

I got the idea last week.  Someone at the office was talking about being a massive Dr. Who fan, and about costuming.  I mentioned that, if I was going to fall through the costuming rabbit hole again (which I’m not) I’d be a Browncoat.  Firefly is in a dead heat with Star Trek (the original) as my favorite TV show of all time.

Anyway, I had some wine crates sitting around and I decided to make some Firefly-inspired cargo boxes to put next to my favorite chair.  Here’s how I did it.

One of the boxes is supposed to be an Independence ammo box, so  I glued and screwed a strips across the top and bottom to give it that WWII ammo box look.  Then I gave both boxes a coat of mud brown paint inside and out to seal them and hide markings and defects.

While that was drying I started distressing the hardware.  You can’t have shiny new hardware on boxes that are supposed to look used!  I put them in a bath of 50/50 water and bleach and boiled them for about 25 minutes.  If you try this, do it outside, be very careful, and use an old pan or a glass one.

The ammo box got a coat of green paint.  While that was drying, I started making stencils so that I could paint on “CARGO,” some random digits, the blue star, and so forth.  The other box I left brown.

Next  came the painting of the details and the hardware installation.  I used spray paint and masking tape.  I also found some cool decals online (thanks to all of the other Firefly fans who did the graphic design!).  I printed those and put them on with a glue stick.  I didn’t have time yesterday, but next weekend I’m going to use a dirty rag and some sandpaper to add a more distressed look.

These are actually really sturdy boxes — they were meant to hold heavy wine bottles after all — so I figure I’ll probably use them when I need to haul stuff to zinefests and what-not.

Sometimes you have to relax and nerd-out.  It’s good for the soul.  Look, these things were fun, and they add a nice touch to my relaxing spot.