Display your Easter eggs, whether they are hard boiled and dyed or wooden ones like the ones I created for Easter egg hunts
I designed this project as a way to turn my family heirloom Easter eggs into a décor item for a cheerful spring vibe in my family room. This allowed me to not only display them, but to prevent my toddler from hiding them. She has a knack for hiding things without leaving a trace and I wanted to save the hunting for Easter morning.
This was a quick and easy build that required very few power tools. This project was definitely easy enough for a beginner woodworker.
I added Happy Easter to the front with heat transfer vinyl (HTV) that I cut on my Cricut, but this could also be hand painted. I’ll add a link to my Dropbox below so you can download the SVG if desired.
Materials & Supplies:
- 1×4 board – I used about 2′ of pine for my stand
- 2×6 board – I used a piece of pine approximately 2′ long (you could also use a 1×6 here, I just wanted the added thickness to add some height to my stand and to have room for my lettering on the front)
- Wood glue – I use Titebond II
- Sandpaper/sanding disks/sanding block – I used 100, 120, 150, 220, and 400 grit because that’s what I had on hand
- 1/4 ” dowel (optional) – I used about 4″ of one to make a sanding jig
- CA glue (optional) – I used KMS tool brand cyanoacrylate (CA) glue
- Wood conditioner – I use the one by Varathane
- Wood stain – I used Varathane’s ultimate wood stain in linen white to give it a farmhouse vibe
- Finish – I used Minwax Polycrylic (you could use any finish you like or no finish at all, but I wouldn’t recommend using spray lacquer over HTV)
- Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) (optional) – I used black Sisser HTV for the lettering, you could also paint it or forgo it all together
- Painter’s tape (optional)
Tools:
- Safety Equipment – eye protection, hearing protection, and respiratory protection appropriate for both dust and vapors
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
- Speed square/combination square
- Miter saw – a table saw or circular saw would also work for this
- Table saw – I used this to rip my 1×4 so that it was exactly half the width of my 2×6, but this step is optional
- 1 3/8″ forstner bit – You could also use a large core box bit for your router. I couldn’t get one big enough for my 1/4″ shank router. A spade bit might work too, but they result in a fair bit of tear out in my experience.
- Drill or drill press – I used a drill press because I find it results in straighter holes, but these holes are fairly shallow so a drill and a steady hand should work just fine.
- Router (optional)
- 45 degree chamfering bit (optional)
- Beading bit with ball bearing guide (optional) – I used an old one by freud
- Random orbital sander (optional)
- Clamps – I used a few quick grip clamps
- 1 3/8″ hole saw (optional) – I used this to make a sanding jig
- Shop vac (optional)
- Lint free shop rags or a brush – for staining
- Paint brush – for finishing
- Cricut or other cutting machine (optional)
- Cutting mat (optional)
- Weeding tool (optional)
- Cricut easy press or iron (optional)
Step 1 Make a cut list or print off a copy of my Sketchup file below. Determine how many eggs you want to put in your stand. My design holds 20 eggs. You could really do any variation, but you’ll want to alter your plan accordingly. You’ll want to take note of the distance to put between each hole to spread them out evenly across the stand.
Step 2 Cut the boards to length. I cut both of mine to 20 5/8″ to accommodate my 20 eggs. I did this on the miter saw.
Step 3 Rip the 1×4 down so that it is half the width of the 1×6 if desired. My 1×6 was actually 5 1/2″ wide, so I ripped my 1×4 down to 2 3/4″ to make the two tiers even.
Step 4 Before drawing out your drill cross hairs I recommend drilling into a scrap piece with your chosen bit to make sure the eggs you are using will rest in the holes nicely and to make sure your bit doesn’t tear out too badly. If it is tearing out sometimes putting painters tape down where you’re drilling can help, but you’ll still want to see where you need to drill so bear that in mind.
After double checking my drill bit size, I decided to go with the 1 3/8″ forstner bit. It didn’t tear out and was a great size for my wooden eggs to rest in.
Step 5 Mark where you’re going to drill. Draw a line down the center of your 1×4 (now it’s 2 3/4″ wide). Measure from the bottom of your 2×6 and draw a line 1 3/8 from the edge. This should place your holes in the center of the 1×6 once your 1×4 is glued on top of it.
Next mark your cross hairs. Draw your first mark on your center line 1 5/16″ from the left side of your board, from there, the rest of your cross hairs should be 2″ apart, so at 3 5/16″ from the edge, 5 5/16″, 7 5/16″, etc.
Mark these cross hairs on your 1×4 and 2×6.
Step 6 Drill your holes. I drilled mine to the top of the head of the forstner bit – about 1/2″. This does leave a small hole in the center of the bottom of the holes. If you would prefer you could drill right through, but really the bottom will never be seen.
Step 7 This step is optional, but I like to add small details to my projects so I used my router to do a 45 degree chamfered edge on the front of my boards. I did this across the top of the 1×4 and 2×6. You could also just break the edges with a sanding block or random orbital sander.
I also did a slight rounded edge around the opening of the holes using this old beading bit I found. I couldn’t use a traditional round over bit because the bearing was burning the bottom of the hole, but this bit has a tiny short bearing so it worked well for this. You could also just break the edges with some sandpaper on a dowel, or leave them as is.
This was the round over bit I tried – luckily it was on a scrap piece 
This is the beading bit I used with the really small bearing 
The depth I set the router at for the edge 
On the left is no round over and the right is with the round over
Step 8 Now it’s time to sand. Be sure to wear respiratory protection for this step (as well as when cutting and drilling). I used medium to fine grit sandpaper to sand the faces and fronts of my boards. I left the sides and back for when the piece is fully assembled.
I wanted a way to sand in the holes without having to do them by hand. Honestly they wont be seen so you don’t have to do this step, but I wanted to try.
First I tried using a rotary tool with a rounded grinding bit, but it wasn’t really sanding the bottom of the holes, so I decided to make a jig.
I used a 1 3/8″ hole saw to drill out a piece of scrap about 2″ thick. Then I drilled a hole in the center of the round block to fit a piece of 1/4″ dowel I had. I put wood glue and a couple of drops of CA glue around the dowel and put it into the round block. The CA glue dries rapidly so you don’t have to wait for the wood glue to dry, though it won’t be at full strength until the wood glue is dried.
Next I cut a strip off some 120 grit sandpaper and traced the bottom of the block onto a sanding disk and glued the sandpaper to the block with CA glue. I taped on the sand paper with painters tape and let it all dry for a few hours.
When I came back it was all still together so I attached it to my drill and carefully used it to sand the inside of my holes. This worked pretty well and I got it to a stage of smoothness I was happy with.
Step 9 Glue the 1×4 (2 3/4” wide) to the top of the 2×6 and secure with several clamps. Let this dry for several hours or overnight and then sand the edges all flush.
Step 10 I vacuumed off the piece with my shop vac and applied my wood conditioner.
After that soaked in for around 30 minutes, I applied my first coat of stain using a lint free shop rag. I let it soak in for 3 minutes and wiped off the excess. I let that dry and then decided to do another 2 coats, letting it dry in between. Once I was happy with the colour I let it dry overnight.
Step 11 Next I did the Cricut customization. I used the Cricut to cut out my happy Easter design (SVG link below) on heat transfer vinyl by Sisser. If you’re doing this remember to put the vinyl shiny side down and mirror the image. To make the SVG I used a font I bought here from Etsy called Hayward.
To access the SVG from google drive:
- click the link above
- right click on the SVG you wish to use
- click download
- save SVG to your computer
- upload SVG into your cutting software
I weeded out the design and used my Cricut easy press to apply it.
I find with small lettering like this it really doesn’t take a lot of heat and if you press too hard the design often shrinks. I preheat the surface and set the easy press to 250 degrees. Then I do two short presses of 10 seconds checking in between to make sure the vinyl isn’t shrinking. It’s important to be steady and not apply too much pressure with narrow writing like this. After about 20 seconds I do a warm peel of the backing making sure that I don’t pull up my design.
Honestly, in my experience sometimes there’s a little bit of trial and error with this, but the times I have messed this step up it has been easy to just carefully scrape off the design that shrunk and try again. Just make sure you scrape off all the excess adhesive too. This only took me one attempt as I was careful not to press for too long.
Step 12 After I let the vinyl cool completely I sealed my design and the entire piece with Minwax Polycrylic. I did 2 coats, painting it on with careful brush strokes in the direction of the grain going one way all the way across the grain. It’s important not to brush back and forth as it leaves obvious brush strokes. I let it dry for 2 hours between coats and sanded lightly with 400 grit sandpaper by hand between the coats.
Note* I have tried sealing over HTV with spray lacquer before and it caused the entire design to come up, so I wouldn’t recommend using that. I have had great success with painting on polycrylic and it really adds to the durability of the HTV design as well as the stained wood.
Enjoy your handcrafted Easter egg holder! Make sure you don’t put any eggs in it until it has fully dried or they may stick.
I hope you liked this tutorial and found it easy to follow. If you tried it please tag me on Instagram @the_walnut_grove and save one of my images on Pinterest!
Happy crafting!
The Walnut Grove 