Occasionally I create something just for the fun of it, and to see if I can make something functional and aesthetically pleasing at the same time. In this case it is a napkin holder, that serves the additional purpose of a chopstick storage and dispenser.

The first stage was to cut the pieces to size, and cutting some dados, both to inset the sides, and the bottom. After that the gluing begins. I also assumed since I was making one of these, there was no reason not to make two at the same time. One for my house, and one for my girlfriends.

After the glue dried, it was time to do a test fit to make sure everything fit, and they were made to the correct scale. The rough design seemed to work out pretty well, and would be prefect for the final design function.

Of course even though the design was functional, I was not really impressed with the overall aesthetic of the box design. So I spent a little time with router table and a couple of different router bits shaping things and softening up the design a bit. In the end I liked the way that they turned out.

Sometimes when you’re laying out a design you have to work around some knots in the wood. You can either remove them, work around them, or embrace them and make them part of the look of the design. In this case that was what I opted to do.

After some additional sanding it was on to the finishing stage. In this case I decided to use indoor, outdoor spar polyurethane to make sure that it could hold up to being in a kitchen environment where there is water and oil on a regular basis.