The pattern on the lid is 1/4″thick pieces of red oak, walnut, and maple glued onto the plywood top. Then some work with a hand plane to finish cleaning things up. I ended up having to build a jig something like a tenoning jig to hold the lid steady while I trimmed away the remaining wood. At least that was how it was supposed to go–somehow my two dadoes got spaced a bit too far apart, so I had extra wood left on the lids to cut away. Once the box is assembled and the glue has dried, you cut away the top on the tablesaw. The lip for the lid is formed by two dadoes, one on either side of the workpiece, separated by a very thin piece of wood holding the box together. You assemble the box with the plywood top and bottom captured in dadoes. I forgot to take pictures of those boxes before we sent them out. The other four boxes used a simplified pattern made up of nothing but rectangles to save time. The one you see here is my wife’s box, it follows the quilt-top pattern from the original design. I increased the height of the box to provide enough clearance for the tea bags, and I simplified the decorative top pattern for four of the five boxes. I basically just followed the plan with two adjustments. I couldn’t find a tea box plan that I liked, so I just adapted a Woodsmith Magazine plan (August 2010 – Issue 190) I had. When I told her that I was thinking about making her a tea box for Christmas, she said, “Well, you might as well make one for my mom and my sister as well, because they’ll want one, too.” Then I tacked on one for my mother and one for my brother-in-law’s wife, and before I knew it one box had turned into five!

My wife really enjoys drinking tea, and up until now she’s been keeping her tea bags in an old shoe box in the cupboard.

Wood tea box