Peter Spirito - Cheese Boxes

Cheese Boxes

Back in the 1930’s and 40’s when my Dad was a kid, before the days of shrink wrap and disposable plastic containers, processed cheese like Velveeta came in wooden boxes of approximately the same size as the extra large (5 lb) carton that Velveeta cheese comes in today.

The 4x4x12 inch wooden boxes were saved and used to store stuff in. My Dad had a couple of shelves below his work bench with his cheese boxes lined up like a row of small drawers. The ends were painted black and a short piece of wooden dowel mounted horizontally served as the drawer pull.

In my Dad’s wood shop when you were looking for something he just might say “look in the cheese boxes.” Bolts, large nails, drill bits, just about anything too long to fit in one of the many glass jars on the wall shelf went into a cheese box.

These cheese boxes now sell in antique shops as collector items for $12 to $15.00. I have a couple.

The first pair of photos show a cabinet I found in an antique shop selling for $125.00 using cheese boxes as storage drawers. The photos show the various brand names of the cheeses.

I have built the new generation of cheese boxes.

The top row is dark mahogany, the 2nd row is a lighter mahogany, the 3rd row is Spanish cedar, the bottom row is maple.

Note that the grain runs continuously from box to box across the small boxes and then again across the large boxes. The grain is also continuous across all of the handle pulls which are made from Poplar.

The boxes are finished with one coat of boiled linseed oil and two coats of MinWax wipe on polyurethane.