A cute carryall for a kids’ room that you can decorate yourself makes for a sweet personalized gift.
With a dear friend having just welcomed a new baby boy, I wanted to make something special for their nursery. Something cute with his name, their nursery theme, and the colors of the room. I love when occasions to celebrate like this arise – it is so much fun to head to the craft store and see what ideas bubble up!
The nursery’s colors are navy, light blue, and red, with a theme of trains. At the craft store, I found a flat wooden train and a little carrying crate, along with wooden letters for his name and started imagining what it would look like.
Now, since I of course can’t resist doing anything sea inspired, I also grabbed a flat wooden anchor for thirty cents to see what a nautical version would look like. So, you’ll see both versions here just to give you some ideas. I also ended up liking this so much that I made two more for other young ones I know, so I of course included pictures of those too!
- wooden carrying crate or other wooden box
- wooden letters of name
- wooden decorations (I did a train for the actual gift but did an anchor for a sea-inspired version)
- acrylic paint of desired colors
- paint brush
- chalky finish paint (I chose a gray color)
- wood glue
- optional: small resin sea stars for a nautical version (I used a starfish vase filler)
This ended up being super easy, just three steps:
- Paint the wooden box with the chalky finish paint. No sanding or priming needed with this stuff! Paint every bit of it: the outsides, insides, and handle.
2. While the box is drying, paint the wooden accents and letters how you wish. For the anchor version, I went with navy blue, and for the train version, I went with the nursery’s colors of navy, light blue, and red.
3. Once the box and accents were dry, I used wood glue to adhere the accents onto the box.
Before gluing the train down, I wanted to play with some ideas for a nautical version. I used the painted anchor and two small resin sea stars from a vase filler I had. Here’s what it looked like:
So after playing with some nautical ideas, I attached the train to the side with wood glue for Sam’s train-themed nursery:
To complete the gift, I of course couldn’t resist adding an autographed copy of Zale’s Tales for Sam’s library. I can’t wait until he is old enough to read it!
This project was so fun, easy, and full of so many options that I made two more for other sweet young ones I know to match their room décor:
I hope it will be something that will find a place in Sam, Abigail, and Niam’s rooms for many joyful years to come!
Sam was born one week ago today (I’m the proud mama), and we have gotten so many compliments on the personalized train-themed crate! As I type this from his nursery I’m looking at it displayed prominently on his little nightstand. I think this would make a great gift to go in any child’s room!
Cute little carrying crates. Once they are able to walk, they will love to carry them around filled with toys and other precious belongings. 🙂 Well done. Best wishes from Toronto, Jana
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Thank you, Jana! 🙂