Message Center

Here’s a quick little project that made my wife very happy. It would have made a good Mother’s Day gift! Oh well!

She likes those at-a-glance type desk calendars (the kind that come with a little plastic easel and two metal oval binders) to keep organized, but we also need a spot to write phone messages and to keep a running grocery list. This little message center not only looks better on the kitchen counter, but it has greatly improved our organization as well.

It measures roughly 10” X 17” with an 8” X 8” elevated easel for the calendar. I chose to inlay some 1/4” aluminum stock to reduce the wear on the wood at the through holes for the binder clips. I also formed a cove at the leading edge of the easel for a pencil rest.

The backstop was probably the most fun. I am currently enamored with live-edged wood and specifically the sapwood/heartwood contrast in black walnut. I sliced this piece out of a curved limb. The pencil cup at the back is just a hollowed-out half round of the same limb. Luckily my beautiful wife doesn’t begrudge me a little artistic license every now and then!