Makeup Organizer

A fully parametric, Gridfinity-compatible makeup organizer built in OpenSCAD. Gift project for my wife and sisters.

The Concept

Modular storage that sits on standard Gridfinity baseplates. The system has two parts: trays (outer shells with decorative exteriors) and cups (removable inserts that hold actual items). Mix and match decorations, swap cup layouts, change one parameter and everything updates.

Core Design: The Decoration Budget

The key insight that makes everything work. A fixed 5mm band is reserved between the Gridfinity grid edge and the tray wall. Decorations “spend” from this budget to add visual interest. No decoration ever exceeds the grid boundary, regardless of style. Gridfinity compatibility is guaranteed by constraint, not careful measurement.

Three Tray Styles

The puffed style is the star. Each slice follows a sine curve from base to top, creating a gentle outward bulge at the midpoint. Decorations for puffed trays follow the same curve.

Pluggable Decorations

One variable controls the active decoration:

• Columns - Half-round pills evenly spaced around the perimeter
• Bricks - Beveled running-bond pattern (the classic look)
• Honeycomb - Hexagonal grid that protrudes outward
• Fluting - Vertical half-round grooves carved into an outer band
• Weave - Small offset bricks creating a woven texture
• Fins - Tapered vertical fins with rounded edges, wide at the base and narrow at the top

Switching decorations is a single line change. The decoration modules handle all the perimeter math internally.

The Stadium Shape

Everything is built on a “stadium” primitive: a rectangle with semicircular or rounded ends. Four corner circles joined with hull(). This gives independent control of corner radius, from sharp rectangles to full capsules. Every tray body, cup, cavity, and decoration band uses this shape.

Technical Challenges

CSG Order of Operations: Boolean operations in OpenSCAD are order-sensitive. The pattern that finally worked: union the body + decorations + interior sleeves first, then subtract decoration cuts, then hollow out the cavity. Getting this wrong causes decorations to either disappear or get filled back in.

Perimeter Walking: Placing decorations evenly around a stadium shape requires math. Three functions handle it: total perimeter length, XY position at distance S along the perimeter, and tangent direction at that point. From the tangent, derive the outward normal for pushing decorations to the correct radial depth.

Hex Spacing: Getting uniform honeycomb spacing took the most iteration. The relationship between hex size, wall thickness, and spacing went through many formulas before landing on values that looked right.

Current Status

Working: all three tray styles, all six decoration styles (columns, bricks, honeycomb, fluting, weave, fins), configurable multi-cup interiors, and separate removable cups.

Shelved for now: inward hex punch-through. The geometry works but there are higher priority details to finish first.

File Structure

params.scad         - All configurable parameters
shared.scad         - Stadium, cavity, perimeter functions
decor-*.scad        - One file per decoration style
tray-*.scad         - One file per tray style
cup.scad            - Removable cup inserts
preview-all.scad    - Side-by-side comparison view

Started as a 600-line monolith, now properly modularized. Each tray style renders independently, decorations are pluggable, parameters live in one place.

Related

• Gridfinity - The modular organization system this is built for
• OpenSCAD - Programmatic CAD with CSG
• 3D Printing - Where these designs become real
• Bambu Lab A1 - The printer that makes them