DIY Caddy Tutorial

It was a present for a friend’s birthday and I have to admit, I was wishing I had made two…so I could have one too!

Isn’t it cute?  I love the chippy goodness and the colors, I have always loved blue and green.

Want to make one?   Good.  Let’s get to it…

 I grabbed a scrap piece of 1/4 plywood left over from another project and used it as my bottom.  My scrap piece was 5×12.

Then I use a 1×6 (which is actually 5 1/2 inches wide) and centered my bottom piece on top of it.  I marked both ends, see above, then drew a line.
After removing the bottom you can see that the above picture shows what I cut to make my end pieces.  I wanted the top a little wider than the bottom.  I drew a line from the width of the bottom board to the outside edge.  Then I clamped the wood down on my miter saw and cut on the lines.  Make sure you clamp it good, and tight and carefully cut.

You could also just make straight ends and it would be just as cute!  Plus easier to cut, you could use a miter box with a hand saw, they are super cheap (around $10 at Home Depot).  Or if you buy your wood from there the nice men will cut it for you!

This gave me the ends and bottom of my caddy.  For the sides I planned to use paint sticks, but since I was winging it my ends were too short to add three, and the paint sticks were not wide enough to make two look good, so I found some 1/4 thin boards that were wider than paint sticks, and used those. (phew!)

I suggest you use the large paint sticks, you can get them free at the home depot, if you ask.  Then before you cut your end pieces, measure the paint sticks like in the picture below, so you know how tall to make the ends.

Easy right?  The paint sticks will need to be cut the same length as the bottom piece.

Next you can either build your caddy or paint it, I usually build first, but decided to try painting it first this time.
As you can see the pictures pretty much explain what to do.  I painted both sides of each piece.  Also when the paint dries I just used an old candle to rub on the edges and middle sections randomly.  This will help it look chippy when you scrape and sand, it works like vaseline making the paint easier to remove.

I wanted to make a rope handle so I found a drill bit just bigger than my rope, clamped the two sides together and drilled my two holes at once.  (obviously this step is ideal to do before you paint….)

I used some random spackle tool (at least I think that is what it is) to scrape the whole thing down.   Next I used my palm sander to finish it off, and really bring out all the colors.  I followed that up with a little stain, I used red oak, but next time I might use something a little darker.

If you remember I used this same method on my Chippy decor box. 

I added my rope, with some knots and…

Done!  I LOVE it!  My husband was actually impressed, he said it looked store bought!  Thank you very much!

Ok, did you notice I skipped the building part?  Sorry, I got so excited to finish I didn’t take pictures of the build.

First you turn the side pieces upside down, put glue on the bottom of them and set the bottom piece on top of them.  Imagine this picture upside down….

Understand?  Then nail the bottom piece on.  I used a nail gun, but you could do it with regular old nails and a hammer (you may want to pre drill small holes to avoid splitting the wood if you do it this way).

After that all you have to do is glue and nail on the side pieces!  So Easy!

And you have just made a super useful and cute caddy!

I even tested it out and it works great to hang on the wall ready to be filled with cute things (note I just used the hooks I had, but I was thinking a hook in the wall or even nails).  I am considering making a couple for my bathroom and filling it with towels and such…wouldn’t that be fun….
So there you have it!  I hope you make one!

And this is what it looked like when I gave it to my friend, makes a great gift…

Thanks for stopping by!
Mindi

I will be linking to these parties.