How to make your own Mother’s Day DIY goodie crate

28 Apr 2022

Treat mum this Mother’s Day and fill a handmade crate with goodies – think chocolate, bath bombs, her favourite snacks, you know the drill. There’s nothing sweeter than a handmade gift with thought in it.  

This delightful crate has been painted in Resene Japonica, Resene Rapture, Resene Persian Red, Resene Olive Green, Resene Rivergum and Resene Wax Flower.

 You will need:

• Thin MDF
• 4m of 30mm x 10mm untreated pine
• 60cm of 18mm x 18mm untreated pine
• Saw
• Sandpaper
• Jig saw
• Resene testpot paints in your choice of colours (Fleur used Resene Japonica, Resene Rapture, Resene Persian Red, Resene Olive Green, Resene Rivergum and Resene Wax Flower)
• Wood glue
• Pin nails and hammer
• Paintbrush, including small artist paintbrushes
• Cloth or a rag
• Resene Colorwood stain in Resene Teak

How to:

Step 1: To make the base of the crate, you need some thin board.  Fleur used 3mm MDF but plywood will also work. First, cut all your wood to size. Fleur’s base is the same size as an A4 piece of paper. To make the ends of the crate, you need to cut four lengths of wood that are the same width as the base. These will sit on top of the base, so the wood that goes along the sides needs to fit between these two ends.

Fleur used a jig saw to cut some handle notches out of two of the end pieces and cut four corner uprights to be 120mm long. Once you have made all your cuts, sand any rough bits smooth.

Step 2: Paint your wood. Fleur painted the base, two sides and two ends in Resene Rapture, and the remaining two sides and the handles in Resene Japonica. She also painted the four corner uprights in Resene Japonica. 

Step 3: Construct your crate and glue it together with wood glue. Leave it to dry overnight then nail it together using small pin nails.

Step 4: Paint on some flowers and leaves using your choice of Resene colours.  Fleur used Resene Persian Red, Resene Olive Green, Resene Rivergum and Resene Wax Flower

Step 5: Once the paint is dry, sand the whole crate with a coarse grit sandpaper to give it a weathered and distressed look.  Use a cloth to rub some Resene Colorwood stain in the colour Resene Teak over the crate. This will give it an antiqued effect. 

Step 6: Leave the stain to dry. Put some tissue paper in the bottom and then fill with some of Mum’s favourite things. Happy Mother’s Day!

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 28 Apr 2022