Diaper Caddy

Diaper Caddy for New Baby

I needed a quick baby "sprinkle" (when you have a baby shower but already have kids, you receive gifts, but not as many) gift. I wanted to make it gender neutral since I did not know the sex of the baby yet, and make it very practical. Soooo... Here's what I did. By the way, this project only cost me about $1.00, and took a very short amount of time to create, cut, and build. The painting was the hardest part.

Here's what I did:

1. I found a bunch of wood scraps I purchased about 6 months ago at Ikea, 10 pieces for $1.00 (!).

2. I knew I needed 2 sides, 2 ends, and a bottom. I knew I wanted a scallop-y like design on the ends so I walked around the house looking for shape inspiration. Here's what I found...

An elk head book-end used as a pattern.

I traced the shape of the top of the bookend onto the 2 end pieces with a pencil. 

3.  Here is my cut list:

1 1x6 for bottom @ 14.5 inches

2 1x6 @ 15.5 inches for sides

2 1x6 with pattern design at 10.6 inches high. 

1 dowel rod, @ 16 inches long

1 1x2 for chalk painted piece@ 5 inches long (not pictured)

4. I cut the end pieces following the pattern line with my jigsaw, I sanded it down with a sand block to make the edges smooth.  

5. I assembled all of the pieces, and using wood glue, I held it together with the bookends. I let dry about an hour.

6. I drilled 8 countersunk holes, two on the bottom of each end and two midway on the sides and screwed in screws, filling the holes with wood filler. 

7. I sanded the whole thing down and drilled two large holes in the tops of the ends for the dowel to go through. 

8. I filled in the dowel end holes with glue and wood filler and sanded down. Note: the hole was not much bigger than the dowel at all. In fact, I had to twist in the dowel to get it to fit. This made the handle more sturdy. 

9. I painted the entire box with killz primer and then sanded lightly. Then spray painted the whole thing with satin finish Antique ivory spray paint. 

10. In order to add some detail I used my sandpaper bit on my rotary tool to "distress" some of the edges to make it look worn, then I used a q-tip and rubbed on some leftover wood-stain, then wiped clean. This is how you can create that rustic, worn look. 

11. I sprayed down with poly-acrylic spray- probably 3 coats. 

12. For the finishing touch, I came up with the idea to make a chalkboard "plate" that could be written on and reused depending on what is stored in the caddy. To do this, I simply painted a 1x2 with chalkboard paint and a sponge applicator. I did about 2-3 coats on the front and sides and let dry. 

13.  Finally, I attached the wood piece onto the caddy with a screw from the inside of the box. 

Here is the finished product:

*What I love about this caddy is that it can be personalized and changed to fit whatever you'd like to fill it with, that being diapers, toys, washcloths, or even silverware or olive oil in the kitchen when the baby is older, or grows out of needing diapers. I thought it was all around very practical. I decorated it with neutral color baby ribbons and a stick of chalk. 

Hope you enjoyed this project. 

Kristen