Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Pencil Holder Tutorial (or how to contain the mess!)

My kids really love drawing and as a result we have pencils, textas, watercolour pencils and assorted pens ALL OVER THE HOUSE!! 

To contain this my 7 year old daughter and I built a huge pencil holder for their desk.  This is a really cheap and easy item to build.

First go into your shed and find suitable offcuts of wood (I know most of you reading this will have a stash).  




I found a kickboard that wasn't used in our renovation - already painted the kitchen colour. The wood was 4 foot long so using the mitre drop saw I chopped it in half to make the final pencil holder 2 feet long.  (When using the any saws I have my daughter hold the phone with the emergency number memorised in case I chop off part of my body. Not such a probability with the mitre saw but this is a very good thing to do when using the rip saw or circular saw).


Then using another piece of wood I made the dividers and ends. The ends I made the same height as the kickboard but the dividers I made slightly shorter (No special reason, just thought it would look good.)

Sand the edges of the wood and prime/paint the sides you'll see.



Line up the dividers on the front piece and using wood glue, stick them into place. As this isn't holding any weight I didnt think it needed screws. It's held up so far!


Once you have worked out where you want the dividers and have glued them onto the front and back, stack some weight on and let dry.  Wipe off the excess glue before it dries.



Cut some plywood the size of the base and once again glue into place.  Put on those little felt surface protectors to save your desk. (What are they called??) Cover the ugly plywood join with ribbon (love my hot glue gun!).


Fill with textas and let the kids loose. I love seeing their creativity flow.





Pictures drawn by my boy who turned 5 last week. Love them!

cheers
Fiona

2 comments:

  1. Very cute... I like it.. and I never know that it was easy to make..

    Personalized Pencil

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your son is quite the artist! Like his mama!

    ReplyDelete

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