Faux Weave Design Storage Box for Bicycle

After all the schlepping of boardwalk pallets, the little trailer that could finally couldn't, so I am making a much more robust trailer now for heavy loads. I plan to use a commerical trailer hitch, and to make room for it on the deck of my bike rack, I needed to rebuild the storage box. The storage box is 3/4 inch plywood. I first made a sketch of the box to get the dimensions I needed, then cut out the pieces on a table saw. I cut a rabbit into the edges of the end pieces, then glued them to the side pieces, making a super strong corner. I used trimhead screws for this. The sides and end pieces wrap around the base, which is also screwed secure.

Just to give the box a little pizzazz, I made a sketch of my design, then replicated it with Green frog tape on all sides. I gave the box a black base color before taping so that none of the wood would show through the final design. Then I cut out all the vertical tiles, leaving the horizontal ones

I gave a primer coat to the whole box, then sponged on a base color of pale orange. Then I used a brush to create a kind of faux wood grain effect.

I filled in all the little black squares and then drew shadow lines. It KIND OF looks like a weave, if you don't get to close. When the project was done, I actually looked at a real basket and saw how far off I was from a true illusion. Ah well. It's still prettier than a plain box. On to the next project!