Hey friends, I feel like I can call you that now. You are all in the “friend zone” now. I share my home, my ideas, my life… and you all join in the conversation. Which is pretty much like us getting coffee together and having a good gossip session. We can complain about our spouse, exchange slow cooker recipes, or share our horror stories of the clutter in our home. One thing I do not have to worry about in my home is the art supply organization. I have that locked up good! Today I am sharing How to make a 4×4 wood and rustic art supply organizer and it only involves a few steps! Say what?!!

** This post contains affiliate links. I provide the links to help anyone wanting to make this. I sometimes will receive a portion of the sales profit**

I have had this in my home for a while now, my kids have put it to great use. But I never shared the full tutorial here, it was shared on another site initially. It is time to share the tutorial for this. I get a lot of questions and mentions of this whenever I share a picture of it. People want to know where I purchased it or how to make it. Well, now I am spilling the ‘deets on this.

The steps are crazy simple. I shared them in the collage above. I purchased a 4×4 and then cut it down to the size I wanted. Once it was cut down to size I measured where each hole for the art supplies would sit in. Using the wood drill bit head as my template to trace out the marks. I have provided a few links to drill bit options that are similar to what I used to do this. Information at the bottom of this post. 

Then, a drill was used to push into the 4×4 to make the holes. I kept going until I was almost to the bottom. Giving the crayons and colored pencils plenty of space.

My plan was to do a dark wood stain, but I wanted to do something a little different this time. The wood had a great natural grain to it, so I simple brushed on a clear coat of lacquer. to have the grain become a little more obvious.

As you can see, it left the 4×4 looking kind of shiny and splattered with the finish.

It all dried beautifully! I also sanded down the corners of this with standard sand paper. Rounding the corners and edges to make sure this is ok for kids. Because if there is a corner, my kids will find it and cause some kind of randomly serious damage that requires all of the band aides in the entire house. Amiright?

Oh wow, who knew colored coordinated crayons could make me do a happy dance? This is proof I need to get out more, this is not exciting to the average person. To me…? Welp, I love this stuff!

This 4×4 wood and rustic art supply organizer is functional without taking up too much space. I adore all of the caddys for art supplies there are out there. Some of them can be so bulky. This one is streamlined enough that it stays on the art table all the time. It allows space for my kids (and me) to use the art table. Weirdly enough, my kids often color coordinate the crayons, also being “helpful” in wanting to throw out any crayon that is slightly broken, paper torn or otherwise not pristine. Um… thanks kids?

This art table was something I created for them when I still had tiny little ones. People, (cough my husband, cough) thought I was insane to have the art supplies out for the kids to get at, sometimes without adult supervision. But, I had a dream for my littles to create without rules. Also, we had a ton of art supplies that I never wanted to drag out because it meant them taking over the dining room table, which meant it had to be cleaned up. It took some getting used to for my kids to keep this not too messy.

Sometimes they do awesome keeping it together, other times there is a legit glitter tornado that no one takes credit for. I did implement some organization ideas for this table, along with the art supply closet that helps it all stay relatively clutter free. My kids have learned that if they work with me on things, then the art table remains a place of freedom for them.

I carved out this little room for them when I rearranged the furniture in my home, which is technically part of our kitchen. It is considered the “eat-in” portion of the kitchen. But, we are not a formal dining room type of people so we have just the one dining room, which is off of the living room. I could not see having two dining tables, where we can literally wave to the other table. This room we call the study, it is pretty much a big-ish kids playroom. No more toys in here, but their art table and books are here.

It has the best lighting in our home. A little behind the scenes action, this is where I film most of my craft tutorials and videos because of the great natural lighting in here. Yes, I kick my kids out of here when I work. Because I am the Mom and I said so!

This art table has been a big hit for my kids as well as others that visit. When we come back from any trip my kids always congregate her, quietly creating to their hearts content. I adore that they have this space to be creative. I hope this how to make a 4×4 wood and rustic art supply organizer is something you enjoyed seeing. I like the rustic and simple elements to it, also that it is rustic without being too much. This will mature with my kids, and then eventually I will commandeer it as my own. Nothing about this feels to kid-ish.

Have you ever created anything with a wood 4×4? Also, please tell me I do not have the only kids that are obsessed with band aides? My kids will do anything to have an owie “count” so they can get a band aide. Kids are weird!