How to Make a Shot Glass Cabinet

Count your shot glasses to determine how many you currently own. You need room for at least this many glasses, not to mention extra room in case you plan on expanding your collection. The average shot glass -- not the tall kind -- requires about 2 1/4 inches of vertical space and 2 to 3 inches of horizontal space on a shelf.

Draw up your plans on a piece of paper, accounting for how many shot glasses you want the cabinet to hold. Make your plans on the basis of using 1-by-3/4-inch wood for the cabinet's outer walls and the shelves inside the cabinet. For example, if you want your cabinet to be 12 inches wide, you can fit between four and six glasses on each shelf. If you want your cabinet to hold 24 shot glasses on four shelves -- including the bottom of the cabinet's frame -- your cabinet must be approximately 17 3/4 inches tall and 15 1/2 inches wide.

Cut your wood to size, which varies in size and the amount according to how large you want your cabinet to be. Sand it down with a fine-grit sandpaper to get it smooth. If you want to paint or stain the wood, do so now; it is easier to get a smooth finish before the shelves are put together.

Lay your wood down on a flat work surface. It should lay on its edges, so that when you look down at it, it appears as it will when hanging on your wall. Line up the bottom piece of wood for the frame with the left piece of wood for the frame. Drill through the left piece and into the bottom piece to make a screw hole, then drill a wood screw into the hole. Pre-drilling a hole prevents you from splitting your wood.

Repeat this process to attach the top piece of the frame to the left piece of the frame. Drill through the left piece and into the top piece. You will now have the top, left and bottom pieces of your frame attached.

Mark on the left piece of the frame where the shelves must attach. Remember that each shelf must be 2 1/4 inches apart from the next. Attach the shelves to the left side of the frame by drilling and screwing as you have been doing.

Press the final piece of wood -- the right side of the frame -- into place against the ends of the top and bottom frame pieces and the ends of the shelves. Drill and screw through the right side of the frame and into the top piece of the frame, then work your way down, drilling and screwing through the right piece of the frame and into each shelf. Finish by attaching the right side of the frame to the bottom piece of the frame.

Spray lacquer across the wood surface to give it a protective coating. Spray lacquer is preferable to paint-on lacquer when working with nooks and crannies like you have here.

Screw keyhole brackets into the top left and top right corners of the back of the cabinet. These allow you to hang the cabinet on your wall using screws.