Today’s contributor is Sara from The Aqua House. All posts written by Sara for Make It and Love It can be found HERE.
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Hi again! It’s Sara from The Aqua House and I’m here today with a fun little DIY desktop pencil caddy. I don’t know about you, but the fact that the kiddos will be going back to school soon makes me want to get all of my office and school supplies organized for the upcoming school year. This year I wanted to find a fun little caddy to put all of our pens and pencils in for easy homework access, but I couldn’t find anything in the stores that I was in love with. The solution was another DIY project, of course!
This little pencil caddy can fit plenty of pens and pencils and is sturdy enough that it won’t be easily knocked over when eager little hands are grabbing for pencils. Since the pen and pencil containers are raised up into the air, they won’t be tipped over when papers or books are set on your desk and pushed around…because we all know that desk clutter happens! You’ll always have a pencil handy and won’t have to dig around looking for one.
It is definitely a unique and stylish accent to any desk!
This project is fun and versatile because you can customize it with any color or container shape that you’d like. Plus there is no cutting (yay!) and all you need are a few tools most of us have sitting around the house.
To make your desk top pencil caddy you will need the following supplies:
SUPPLIES
To start out, remove all stickers from the wood and make sure if any residue is left behind that it is washed off. Then paint all of the wooden pieces completely. If you are using spray paint like me it will take several coats to get an even finish. Make sure the paint is completely dry before moving on to the next step.
Now that all of your pieces are ready to go, we need to find the center of the plaque (or whatever base you choose) and mark it. Since my plaque had routered edges, when I did my measurements I only measured the center part of my plaque and discounted the routered part. Start by laying your ruler on the plaque and finding half length ways. For my base that measurement was 4 5/16 inches. Make a small mark with a pencil.
Now you will need to repeat the same process on the width side. My measurement came in at 2 15/16 inches.
Make another mark and you should have found the center of your base.
Since we bought a chair leg to be our post, it should have a screw on the bottom of it. We will be screwing the leg into the base. To do this we are going to need to pre-drill a hole in the base using a 1/4 inch drill bit. To do this you will first need to measure how far the screw sticks out of the bottom of the leg. My screw stuck out 3/8 of an inch. In order to make sure I didn’t drill a hole completely though the board, I took a marker and made a slight mark on the drill bit so I knew how far to drill.
Then on the center mark I drilled down just until the mark on my bit.
Around the center mark I put a small ring of wood glue. Even though we are screwing the leg in, I wanted to make sure that it would stay and wouldn’t be able to be unscrewed…I mean, its not like my curious little boys would do anything like that…ha!
Gently twist the chair leg into the hole. Wipe up any wood glue that may seep out around the edges.
Now all that is left to do is to attach the containers to the post. If your containers are oddly shaped like mine, you may need to add an 1/4 inch hex extension to your drill, so it is long enough to reach inside the containers and screw them to the post.
Before you attach the containers put a little bit of wood glue on the side of the post to make sure that the containers won’t slip around after they’ve been screwed on. Attach the containers by screwing through the inside of the container and into the post.
Now your caddy should be all done and ready to use. If needed, touch up any paint and then go ahead and set it on your desk and use it!
Now you too can be a little more organized for the upcoming school year!
-Sara
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The home office is often a neglected corner where decorating is concerned. Why not jazz it up with some personal touches, like some of these great ideas we have shared in the past?
Hanging Homework Station (…or craft station!)
DIY Farmhouse Modern Desk…with open front storage cubby
Wall Mounted Mail Organizer…from scrap wood!
Hi, I’m Ashley—the DIY-enthusiast behind this crazy blog!
