How to Make a Blanket Box

A blanket box is a desirable piece of bedroom furniture or can be a useful storage box for toys or shoes. Often solid in design and built to last, these boxes are usually made of solid pine or oak. Here we show you how to make your own blanket box using cheaper materials and simple loose tenon joinery to achieve a refined finish which can be designed to match your existing furniture.

How to make a blanket box

In this article we show you how to make a blanket box using loose tenon joinery, similar to biscuit dowls or a domino style joint, to create your joins. If you don't have access to a domino or biscuit jointer, then you can still achieve the same loose tenon joinery using a router and the UJK Loose Tenon Router Cutter.

For our design we used a pine lid, stained to match existing furniture, and painted. We used timber for the main frame and sheet MDF for the panels.

Follow our step by step guide below or watch Jason in our Woodworking Wisdom demo.

Prepare your timber

Machine up your timber for the frame to size and cut to the required lengths, ensuring the cuts are square. These are going to be jointed using a domino style joint.

The leg sections are glued together in two stages. First glue the long sections to form a right angle then leave to dry. Then, glue and clamp the short sections in place, forming the short section box that will be the base of the legs.

Create the mortice jig

To create the domino style jointing holes we have used a router and therefore you will need to make a simple jig. This jig uses a 10mm guide bush mounted in the router base, with a 6mm cutter.

The jig is made of plywood. Carefully mark out the main board including a location for a batten to act as a back fence. The locations of the dominos are central across the thickness of the board and spaced equally across the width. The holes to guide the guide bush are carefully drilled on a pillar drill using a 10mm forstner bit and then the holes are joined up using a file to create the elongated shape. The back fence batten is glued in place.  A central line and top/bottom rail widths are also marked on the board. This simple jig allows the repeat cutting of the two holes in each rail and leg.

With the legs glued, mark out each of the frames to be jointed and number the joints. Accurately draw a central point on the top and bottom rails then transfer this to the legs. These marks also relate to which way the work is positioned within the jig; this maintains that the jointing surfaces of the material line up.

Set up the router with the 6mm cutter and 10mm guide bush and set the cutter depth (20mm). Set up and do a practice cut using a piece of scrap the same size as the material. This will allow the size of the inserts to be measured. The jig is now ready to make the cuts for the mortice holes, which will be done at a later stage.

Make the loose tenons

Machine the board to make the loose tenons, matching the thickness of the width of the holes. Machine this as one board of about  800mm –1000mm long by about 80mm wide, this will make it easier to machine.

Set up the loose tenon router cutter in the router table and adjust the cutter height to match the required size/thickness. Position the fence to be in line with the minimal cutting point of the cutter and use a feather board to provide pressure and to guard the cutter. Feed the length through then set up the bandsaw to the require width. Cut off the first section and feed this narrow section through the cutter to create the elongated shape. Repeat as required. Make enough lengths for the completed project (40 inserts of 39mm long).

Set the fence on the bandsaw to the required length (39mm) and use a scrap piece of sheet material with a right-angle corner to act as a push block. This allows the short sections to be accurately cut to length and safely pushed beyond the bandsaw blade.

Cut the loose mortice holes

Clamp the jig onto the surface to be jointed and line up the central guide lines. Position the router so that the guide bush locates into the slot. Switch on and repeat plunge cut the router up and down working along the length of the slot. This removes the worst of the waste, then move forward and backwards gently lowering the cutter to remove the waste. Work to the required depth. Extraction is important for this. Repeat the set up for each joint.

Dry assemble the long frames together. This allows the middle rail to be accurately cut to length then marked out and jointed using the same jig. Then dry assemble the jointed frames to check how these come together.

Cut the panels

Each frame needs to be reassembled, and held with clamps. Then, using a bearing guided slot cutter in the router, cut a groove to accept the sheet material to use for the inserted panels.

Carefully work around the frame. A slower feed speed will create a better finish, therefore guide the router slowly. Check the grooves to panel thickness, adjust the cutting depth and repeat if required.

Measure the size of the required panels and cut to size. Take the frames apart and clean up the corner joints with a chisel. The groove needs to be 10mm-12mm deep.

Assemble the box

The complete box can be dry assembled to check for any issues. Once done, sand the panels and grooved edges. The frames can be glued up in stages, front and back, then leave to dry. Next, glue on the ends to complete the four sides of the box

Clean up the outer faces with an orbital sander. To support the inserted base, 20mm square sections of batten are cut, glued and screwed in place. The top of the battens are fixed level with the top of the internal short leg section and screwed through the batten into the frame rails. With these fixed in place, the drop in base can be cut to size and put in place.

Make the box lid

The top for the box is made from pine batten. These are machined square and cut to the same length (not to required length). These are then laid out in order, numbered and marked up to biscuit joint together. With the biscuit joints cut this can be glued together. A glue roller makes this quicker to spread the glue evenly. Clamp together positioning the clamps alternatively along the board length. Tighten evenly and check that this is flat across the width and remove any excess glue.

Trim the top to size, width and length. This has a 30mm overhang on each edge. Leave this un-sanded before cutting, as this will highlight the position of the biscuit joint locations. Set up a round over cutter in the router and carefully work around the edges and the ends. The pine top can then be sanded using the orbital sander.

Attach the hinges

Mark out the position of the hinges into the lid. Use a straight edge to temporarily clamp onto the lid to keep the hinges in a straight line and set in evenly from the edge. Mark out the centre point of the hinge and position the hinge onto this sighting through the screw hole. Drill a pilot hole using a hinge drill and fix the hinges in place with two short temporary screws.

Remove the straight edge using a knife scribe around the outside of the screwed down hinges. Remove the hinges, carefully chisel out the waste. This is best done with the chisel bevel face down. Use a small hand router plane to accurately level up the material within this recess. Check to see how the hinges fit and screw back in place. Repeat for all three hinges.

Fix the lid in place

On the back of the base, draw a central line on the outer face of the top rail, head down toward the middle dividing rail. Position the top onto the base with the hinges opened so that the leaf of the hinge lays on the outer face of the back of the base. Line up the central screw hole to the drawn line, then, using a marking knife, mark a small cut on the outside edges of the hinge on the corner edge of the rail. Mark the position of three hinges.

With the top removed, mark out the hinge location using a square and pencil to line up with the knife cuts. Scribe a length line, then, use a marking gauge to set the width of the hinge into the rail. Use the marking knife to cut from the gauge line to the corner on top of the drawn pencil line to create a break line in the wood fibres.

Using a chisel and a small router plane, cut the recess to except the hinges. Bring the lid and base together, locating the hinges into the base. Use the drill hinge to accurately centralise the pilot hole, then secure with a few screws. Check how it shuts.

Strengthen the lid

Due to the fact that the box lid is quite wide, there is a risk that this might cup and twist. To control this, two battens are fixed onto the underside of the lid. These have slotted screw holes that will allow the wood to move across the width whilst restricting the cupping. To create the slots, drill the holes on a pillar drill. The slotted holes are two holes close together - use a small round file to join these together. Clamp and fix these two battens onto the underside of the lid.

Clean up and finish

Your blanket box is now ready for its final finish. Check over to remove any dents or damage, soften the corners, and sharp edges. The lid of the box is finished with a soft coloured paste wax and buffed with a soft brush. The base is painted using a primer undercoat, which is lightly rubbed down then painted with a topcoat.

Made it? Share it!

If you have made our loose tenon blanket box then why not share a pic on social media, we would love to see it! Search and tag your photos @axminstertools on Instagram or Facebook.