Divided mug trays

The project: Create padded compartments for mugs to protect them in drawer storage.

The scope: 20 full size mugs.

The pattern: Bottom of 2 piece box and lid.

After the success of our first intern rehousing training, we decided to offer a similar training session to our fall 2023 interns. For this session, we chose ceramic mugs to receive new homes. One of the interns was working with ceramics as part of his project, and the collection as a whole needed to be inventoried and packed in preparation for an upcoming HVAC replacement. We were therefore interested in storage solutions for our ceramics that would work to protect them long term in their storage drawers and also that would be easy to pack and move as needed.

We decided on divided trays with plenty of padding. For weight reasons, we stuck to four mugs per tray. (I did some testing and pattern crafting for larger trays, but ultimately discarded those as too finicky for a training project.) Each compartment of the tray was lined first in cloth batting, which was glued to the compartment walls, and then in ethafoam, which was free standing. Lining the bottom of each compartment is three layers of ethafoam. The base layer is just a rectangle the size of the compartment. The second two layers have holes cut out of the center the size of the mug base, so that the mug rests inside the compartment without sliding around. Finally, each mug was given a mylar cap, to keep dust and other pollutants from settling inside them during storage.

Similarly to our last intern training session, I wrote out written instructions for the project and each of our interns created one tray. We had three interns for this training session. I had made a prototype tray to test the pattern and make sure I didn't forget steps when writing out the instructions, and I made one more tray after the training session to house the rest of the mugs. Here are the five completed mug trays:

Five trays, each divided into four compartments. Each tray holds four mugs, and the compartments are padded with batting and ethafoam.

The image gallery below walks you through the process of creating these trays.

Four mugs arranged into a square, handles all facing in.
1. The first step is to arrange the mugs into a rectangle to figure out the size of the tray. Make sure to leave space between the handles for the layers of blueboard and padding in the final project.
Two images. The first shows a built tray made of blueboard. The second shows the same tray with blueboard dividers creating four equal compartments.
2. After drawing the pattern and constructing the box, I created the dividers to sit inside. These dividers fit as exactly as possible within the box.
Three images. The first shows four equally sizes strips of batting. The second shows the tray with the batting affixed to the inside walls of each compartment. The third shows ethafoam squares have been added to the bottom of each compartment.
3. I cut four strips of batting, each as tall as the tray and slightly longer than the circumferance of each compartment. These strips were hot glued to the inside of the compartments. The I cut four squares of ethafoam to serve as the base layer for the compartments. These were not glued down, so they were cut to be exactly the size of the compartments so they don't slide around.
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4. Two more ethafoam rectangles were cut for each compartment. Using a compass, I made a circle in the square where the base of the cup would sit and cut it out. For this, it was helpful to turn the cup upsidedown in the compartment and find where the base landed, since the handle means that this is not the center of the compartment.
Two images. One shows four mylar circles, each with a blueboard piece glued to the center. The second shows the completed mug tray, with each mug now having a mylar cover.
5. To create the mylar covers, I once again used the compass to draw a circle slightly larger than the opening of the mug. I created a template out of cardstock so that I could draw the circle onto the mylar without risking getting any stray pen marks on the mugs themselves. Each of the covers also got a small piece of blueboard glued to it. This blueboard serves as a post to keep the cover from blowing away at the slightest movement.
Five finished mug trays lined up in two rows.
6. And the tray is done! It joins its friends, waiting to be put back into the drawer, now much happier and safer than before.