DIY Cedar Soap Dishes

A Fast Scrap-Wood Project

Cedar works well for a soap dish because it is easy to shape, naturally suited to damp environments and often available as small leftover pieces from deck or outdoor projects.

Cutting and Shaping

The blank is cut to size and the edges are softened before adding the drainage grooves.

Those grooves give water somewhere to go instead of allowing it to collect directly underneath the bar of soap.

Adding the Drainage Grooves

The grooves are the key functional part of the design. They raise the soap slightly above the main surface while also giving moisture a path away from the bar.

Keeping the spacing consistent gives the finished dish a cleaner look without adding much complexity to the build.

Sanding and Finishing

A little sanding cleans up the edges and grooves and keeps the project comfortable to handle.

Because cedar already handles moisture well, the project can stay simple without turning it into an overcomplicated finishing exercise.

A Good Project to Batch

Because the pieces are small and the operations repeat, it is easy to make several soap dishes at the same time.

This is the kind of project I like for scraps: useful, quick and simple enough that the material actually gets used instead of sitting in the shop.

This soap dish is also one of the projects included in my four easy scrap-wood gifts collection.

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