Wall-mounted charging station plus earphone/cable storage

Materials: Forhoja set of 3 boxes, electric drill with centre bit, wood glue, a few small nails, strip of 4x1 cm wood, extension lead

Description: We have in our household: 2 e-readers, 1 iPad, 1 smaller tablet computer, 1 iPhone, 2 other cell phones and a camera. All of which need to be charged ALL THE TIME. Result: We were constantly looking for charging cables, free wall sockets and the devices themselves.

So I built this charging station which can also be used to stores extra charging cables, earbuds and cell phones. I wanted a wall-mounted station so as not to clutter up the last few precious bits of free table and shelf surface.

I got the Forhoja boxes - it's a set of one big and two smaller boxes; the big one comes with a tray-like lid. The entire thing is just wide and deep enough to comfortably hold the iPad, at least to Kindles and two cell phones at the same time.

First I attached the little pieces of wood into the big box (instead of into the lid as per instructions) to prevent the lid from sliding about.

Using wood glue, I glued the smaller boxes on the sides of the big box. Originally I hadn’t planned to use the small boxes at all, but they make an excellent place to keep earbuds (which disappear all the time as well). I glued 4 strips of wood (10 x 4 x 1cm) to the back to provide a little space between box and wall and put a few small nails in for extra sturdiness.

I drilled a few 22mm ventilation holes into the lid and the bottom of the big box to prevent the charging plugs and extensions lead from overheating. (Note: don’t forget to put a piece of scrap wood under the box when drilling ventilation holes! You can also put sticky tape on the underside so the wood won’t splinter outwards when the drill breaks through.) I also drilled holes into the back for wall mounting with two screws and washers.

When I screwed the box to the wall I placed the power cable along the back of the box so it runs down the middle between the strips of wood. I had to use a manual screwdriver because the electric screwdriver wouldn’t fit â€" hard work! The cables inside the box are gathered together with a bit of plastic-coated wire so they won’t go all over the place when the lid is lifted off. The lid goes on to the box deep-side up, so the devices can be propped against the wall and won’t slip over the edge.

I'€™m pretty pleased with the whole thing; I only wish I had painted it a bright colour before screwing it to the wall - maybe I'€™ll do that at a later date when I can face having to screw it on again with the tiny manual screwdriver.

~ Nina Hyland, Munich, Germany