Saturday, 11 July 2015

A Tivoli Christmas Advent Calendar

I couldn't resist the offer of purchasing a Tonic Forever Moments Tivoli Storage Unit on Create & Craft last week as they were half price.  These first came out last October and I held back then mostly due to the price and also due to lack of experience in these types of projects.    Although useful as a storage solution for those smaller things that seem to get lost in big drawers, the reason for my purchase was to make this work as an advent calendar, something I had always aspired to owning.  Christmas feels that much more special when you fill your home with lots of homemade items.  However, I can see me making use of this all year round if I turn the drawers around and add little drawer handles.

The actual unit is constructed from mdf which simply slots together.  All you need is a little bit of glue which is provided with the project.  I took the advice of leaving off the back panel until I had applied a couple of coats of paint onto the mdf.  This prevented pools of paint forming at the back and was much easier to paint.  I painted the back piece separately and then fitted it on when the paint was dry.  In normal circumstances I would save the painting to last because of the risk of the mdf swelling and then joints not fitting but this didn't seem to be a problem and I was careful when applying paint need the joints.

The drawers are made up of strong cardboard pieces which are ready to glue together and decorate as you wish.    Again, I painted these first before construction to make it easier.  It is surprising how long it takes to apply two coats of paints twice over on 24 little drawers!  Still, I had the TV on in the background which kept me company.  I then sealed my drawers with some Modge Podge to protect from wear and tear before gluing the corners together. 

Finally I decorated each drawer front with paper I had from my Mind’s Eye and numbered them 1 to 24!

Here is a photo of the finished result.










No comments:

Post a Comment