More often than not, we’re working right up until the last minute on Clara’s homemade Christmas gift—sometimes literally with projects drying in the garage on Christmas Eve. This year was no exception. The best part about sharing the finished gift after the holiday, though, is getting to include cute photos of Clara enjoying it. That’s our favorite part to witness. Meet Clara’s new figurine cubby:

She absolutely loves it.

After tossing around ideas—everything from a cardboard playhouse to a toy fruit stand—we realized Clara still uses many of the larger items we’ve made for her in previous years (her play kitchen, fridge, dollhouse and train board are all still played with regularly). Because we don’t have a lot of floor space to spare, we decided against building another large freestanding toy and focused on something that could go on the wall instead.

Clara has a serious fondness for small figures: tiny animals, fairies, LEGO people, and random plastic creatures like ninja turtles and dragons. She loves collecting and arranging them, so we thought a wall-mounted box with a variety of cubbies would be the perfect home for her little friends. To make it extra special, we planned to personalize some of the cubby backs with fabric from Clara’s photo-project collection—she’d picked the prints herself earlier without knowing how we intended to use them, which meant she’d get to feel involved in the surprise.

We chose a spot on her wall beneath her blue clock, where she already liked to place a few figures on the small ledge. A box about 13″ x 17″ seemed like the right fit, so we sketched several layout options. At first we considered uniform cubbies, but wanted to accommodate toys of different sizes. In the end, we created a mix of compartment sizes so Clara could group some figures together while keeping others separate—the perfect compromise for a child who insists, in all seriousness, that “birds don’t play with dragons!”

Once the layout was settled, we bought 1/2″ craft boards and cut the top, bottom, sides and a selection of divider pieces. We assembled the outer frame using wood glue and 1/2″ brad nails, clamping and squaring corners to keep everything straight. Before completing the internals, we pulled out a handful of Clara’s figures to validate the sizes. That prompted a few adjustments and a quick trip to the garage to cut additional pieces so the spacing felt right.

Construction proceeded from the bottom up: vertical dividers were set into place using a spacer for consistent gaps, glued and nailed from the bottom, then the first horizontal shelf was glued and nailed from the top. We allowed that to dry overnight before adding the next row of shelving the same way. After the interior was complete, we attached the final frame piece and added a thin sheet of leftover plywood as the back, securing it with glue and nails. At that point it looked a lot like a small Ikea-style bookcase, just handcrafted.

We primed the whole unit and applied two coats of a soft semi-gloss white paint. In hindsight, painting some pieces before attaching the back would have been a bit easier, but the final finish still looked great.

Next came the fun part: letting Clara choose the fabrics. She immediately pointed out her favorite—the pink flamingos—and quickly selected five more prints, dismissing others with decisive “nope”s. While she slept on Christmas Eve, I made paper templates for the cubby backs where I wanted to add fabric, cut the fabric pieces to size, and adhered them with Mod Podge. I painted a thin coat of Mod Podge onto the back panel, smoothed the fabric down to remove wrinkles, and let it dry. It set quickly and securely.

On Christmas morning Clara was thrilled. She loved seeing her chosen fabrics and the new homes for her figurines. It was heartwarming to watch her play “apartment” with the figures—apparently Ariel and a dragon can happily share a room—and to see her carefully return toys to their cubbies when she was finished. She enjoys both playing inside the cubbies and using them to store toys when they’re not in use.

Material costs were minimal: about $20 for the wood, since we already had supplies like glue, paint and Mod Podge on hand. If you don’t have those basics, plan for an extra $5–$20. To hang the cubby, we attached two D-rings to the back and mounted it on screws with wall anchors for a secure hold.

That’s what we built, painted and fabric-covered for Clara this Christmas. Did you make any homemade gifts this year? We’ve seen some amazing play kitchens from readers, and it’s wild to think it’s been two years since we made Clara’s kitchen.

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