From Locker Doors to Nightstands

So what do you do when your husband finds these very cool old locker doors at the dump!  Well first when you post them on Facebook the Assistant Fire Chief sends back a message saying those came from her house!  :)  After you tell her to call you from now on before she dumps ANYTHING...you decide what to do with these rad old things!

 In my case I am lucky to have the tools to work on wood projects so my decision was to make nightstands to complement my Door Headboard.  This will be in a future Instructable.  From there it was deciding measurements, using mostly recycled wood, especially for the front of the nightstands and reconditioning one of the doors from the fifth doors hardware.  Used a plasma cutter to cut the metal wire mesh for the inserts to separate the sections on the inside of the nightstands.  (Plasma cutting is my favorite thing of all time.  CUDOS to the developer of this absolutely rockin' tool).  Cut pieces of 3/16" hardboard for the backside and nail gunned it on.  

After making up the actual wood part, I had to decide on the top.  Looked at a few options and decided cement would be great for what I was trying to achieve.  Had a heck of a time deciding how to pour smooth cement tops, but my husband finally came up with some cool plastic to use in the molds to help with that problem.  Search on Instructables for cement and there are some great ideas from folks with helpful tips.  And of course being me, I liked the way it came out the first time, however it just wasn't "quite" right.  So I tried again and added some bling (rusty parts found at an old Gold Mill site).  Now I am quite happy with the results, even though I ended up having to sand and chip some of the cement off.  Keep in mind that I sprayed these with Enamel for the cool kind of glossy effect.