#benjabelle

Do it yourself brush tree! Here is a picture step-by-step of how I made my own Benjabelle Brush tree inspired Drying Rack! The brush trees sell for about $20-$40 plus shipping but I made this for a fraction of the price! It only cost me about $13 to make (mostly because I had to by a xacto knife because I didn't own one).

You'll need: a ruler or straight edge (for a cutting guide), cutting board, some sort of blade, foam sheet, a pen or pencil, some stencils or a compass, glue, and some foam board. I bought all of the supplies from Michael's. The pack of foam board is 8"x10" and it comes with 5 boards. The X-acto knife originally sells for $10 but I had a 40% coupon!

I basically used anything with round edges around my house to trace and make stencils of ovals. You can use a compass to make perfect circles but I personally think ovals are better to support the foam to hold the brushes better.

You want to make sure that the size of the ovals are able to fit the girth of your brush handles. I traced the shape on some cardboard and made several of each (16 small, 4 medium, 4 large). I tried to compensate for the types of brushes I have and how much of each size I had. I also wanted some symmetry so that there is some balance to the structure as it is holding my brushes.

I planned out how I wanted the brushes to be arranged.You want the larger brushes to be distributed opposite to each other so their weight distribution is equally balanced throughout the whole structure.

I then used my X-acto knife to cut out the holes. I made two of these to sandwich the foam sheets. This part took the longest! Please, please be careful with this part as you can easily cut yourself if your knife slips! I was blessed enough to not let that happen to me throughout this whole project.

Next I cut a piece of the foam sheet the size of the board (8"x10"). I felt the foam sheet was a little too thin for my liking so I cut two pieces to double up and make the foam sturdy to hold the brushes well.

Next I aligned the foam sheet with the foam board and drew guide lines for the slits in the foam where the brush handles will slip through. I then cut along the line with my X-axto knife. I also cut out a thick slit in the middle of my board to insert the base of the structure.

Now all you have to do is glue all the pieces together! Avoid getting glue on the parts that hold the brushes.

So for the legs, I essentially cut out two trapezoids, one slightly taller than the other, and cut out opposing slits so that they interlock into one another. The excess part hanging on the top of the longer piece will slide through the slit on the board and attach through there as it hold up the whole structure.