Our Reclaimed Wood DIY Advent Calendar

I can’t wait for December first. Why? Because Mr. BasketMaker fills up all 25 days of our advent calendar we made a couple years ago, for me to open up each day.

Actually, I think he only fills up a few days ahead because he thinks I will peek. But I wouldn’t know that because I never look ahead 😉

Anyway, when we made this I took instructional photos but never posted. But the good news is that after 3 years it’s still in great shape and working perfectly!

It started with a 25-box storage compartment I bought at Hobby Lobby or one of those craft stores.

My idea was to decoupage the fronts with different papers I’ve collected but brought it into Eric’s workshop to see if he could build me a frame around it so it would be more sturdy.

Well he did better than that…

Using some reclaimed wood that was given to us (Thanks Suzanne & Jud!) he turned it into a wood house frame with a little shelf under the roof!

Before he added the bottom base, he inserted the box to make sure everything fit. And, of course, it did!

So now everything is getting “re-put together” and glued and nailed…

Now it’s ready to bring into my workshop…

I decoupaged different papers on each front…

Now the task of laying them all out and figuring out which color combination worked best. That probably took the longest, honestly!

Then when I was happy with the order, I pasted on subtle numbers I found from old ruler paper. Then I painted a little on top of each to give it an “antique” kind of feel which made everything appear cohesive but you can skip that step.

And that’s it! I love our little advent calendar! Send any pics of your family’s advent calendar!!

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