DIY Wrapping Paper and Ribbon Organizer
January 11, 2010
Kids have a way of springing things on you – it just comes with motherhood territory. Friday, my daughter announced to me that she was expected at the social event of the season. Okay, it was just another invitation to yet another kid’s birthday party, but it happened to be taking place that very afternoon. Need gift, need it wrapped, pronto !
In the past, whenever these kinds of social events had arisen, I always found myself scrambling for wrapping paper and ribbon. It drove me crazy. I had no place to store wrap in my office and I didn’t want to store it under the bed. Then I thought, hey, I’ll use the space behind my laundry room door. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Genius, I tell ya.
I searched around online for a quality organizer, and even considered buying one like this, but most of the consumer reviews said it was junk. Then I had a light bulb moment. Light bulb said, “Gurl, what the heck are you thinkin’ ? Git yer beehind on down to Lowe’s and build yerself yer own, dagnabbit !” So I did, lickety split.
This project took about two hours total from start to finish over the course of two days, but now I have this great little wrapping paper organizer and I’ve maximized storage in a place I wasn’t using before- behind the laundry room door ! Yeee haw !
I was inspired by this image from Country Living, but I wanted to build a tall skinny version.
So I did. This organizer is made of solid wood, holds six rolls of standard size wrapping paper or cellophane, and many rolls of craft and decorative ribbon.
Building This Simple Wrapping Paper & Ribbon Organizer
Supplies (all found at Lowes): 2’ x 4’ x 5 mm piece of birch plywood; 2 pieces 1” x 3” x 8’ poplar board trimmed to frame plywood back; 1 piece 1/2” x 4” x 2’ poplar; cup hooks; eight 36” long dowel rods measuring 3/8 inch width; 2” nails, “D” ring hangers; primer and paint.
Step One: Cut your 1” x 3” x 8’ poplar boards to frame the sides and bottom of your plywood back.
Step Two: Determine where your dowel rods will go on the bottom of your frame, mark and drill halfway into poplar board with drill bit. If your dowel rod is 3/8” then use a 1/2” drill bit to allow your dowel rod to slide in and out of the opening easily.
At first, I only drilled four holes (see below), but I later came back and drilled six holes to store more wrapping paper.
Step Three: Match up your 1/4” x 4” x 2’ poplar piece to the base, trim the sides to 3”, then drill corresponding holes all the way through the thinner poplar piece so it can act as a guide for the top of your dowel rods that hold the wrapping paper.
Step Four: Prime and paint all of your pieces including your dowel rods. I recommend using oil based primer when working with raw wood. I used the brush on Zinsser, but you could also use spray primer as well. Allow to dry.
I chose to paint the box frame with Rustoleum’s ‘Seaside Green’ leftover from this laundry room drying rack I made last summer.
Since they’re both hanging next to one another in the laundry room, the colors totally jibe.
Step Five: Once your paint is dry, attach your frame to your painted plywood back with nails. I left the back of the plywood raw since no one will ever see it.
Step Six: Use a standard height tube of wrapping paper to measure the height of your middle poplar guide.
With a right angle, make sure your middle guide is level, then attach to your frame with nails.
Cut your dowel rods to just above the middle poplar guide.
Step Seven: Attach your “D” ring hooks to the back, then attach and your cup hooks to the front to support the dowels for the ribbon spools. It helps to drill a small pilot hole before screwing in your cup hooks.
That’s all folks.
Total time for this project ? About two hours, stretched over two days.
I also keep my greeting cards in this little organizer on the shelf. Mr. CG brought it home to me last year. I almost cried. Then I found out it was a free gift when he bought a bunch of Mother’s Day cards.
I think ironing boards make perfectly appropriate places to wrap presents, don’t you ?
The best part about my handy dandy organizer is that it is hidden from guests’ view, but not from mine. Bonus – now I can take inventory as I fold socks.
This little shelf keeps scissors and tape away from munchkin fingers.
I like my little organizer.
Cause I like to look at pretty papers.
And pretty ribbons.
Pretty ribbons are one of my favorite things.
Like raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens, and . .
Never mind.
Need more inspiration for storing your ribbons ?
Here you go.
Martha Stewart
For more gift wrap organization ideas, visit another Bay Area gal pal, Cristin at Simplified Bee right here.
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This project was featured on Apartment Therapy and also featured on DIY Life.
Gorgeous idea! I’ll be making one of these to fit my stuff, the only problem I have is….nowhere to put it :/ So…I think I’ll make just a ribbon version for my crafts!
Totally cute! I love your new ribbon/paper holder!
I love this! I have always wanted one of these and now may have to look at building one!
Awesome. Now only if I had a laundry room, I would so do this!
Great job! You’re gifts are going to be the envy of the party!! I love the paint color as well. Must make mental note.
Looks great! I am wondering how you swap out the wrapping paper. I am sure you covered it and I just didn’t understand it.
I love how you have made custom organizers for your laundry room. We’re currently renovating the basement, and I may have to incorporate some of your fabulous ideas. 
I love ribbon and wrap also! I’m a believer that it’s all in the presentation, and that holds true for much of our lives.
What a great idea! Since Christmas, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to find a way to organize my wrapping paper – I just found it. Thank you!
Love this! I have a question for you though, do you have any problems with your ribbon rolls unraveling? If not, how do you keep them from doing it? I think this is a fabulous idea, great job!
Thanks for the ideas! Currently, I have all my wrapping paper and ribbons in a long flat storage bin. But it wouldn’t be great to display them in a more visible way.
Love it! Thanks for the inspiration. I think it would work great in a closet that I have. Beats storing the pretty stuff in stuffy boxes!
AWESOME!!! Thanks for the great idea!
Do you just lift the dowel rod out to replace the roll?
You have inspired me. I believe I may attempt my own version of this.
Thanks!
Trish
*SIGH* Gorgeous!! I love all the ribbon pictures!!
And your organizer is inspirational!
Love it!
I have been noticing that, amongst all the Christmas clearance, there seems to be an excessive amount of ribbon. The majority of the ribbon is NOT Christmasy at all! It’s just in Christmasy packaging. With items currently 75 – 90% off you can’t beat that for stocking up on ribbon for gift wrapping!
Oh, so pretty and functional!! I would love this in my home, my wrapping stuff is piled onto a top shelf of a hall closet…Nothing like this!! Enjoy. Janell
p.s. yes, don’t you just have to shake your head when the kids spring little surprises like this on you. Keep us on our tippy toes, for sure!
OH, WOW! I absolutely LOVE this idea! I’m going to show it to my hubby and see if he can help me figure out where we could do this. I know he can build it but our laundry room door is a pocket door and there’s really no room in there to install it. I’ll have to think on that one for a while, but I absolutely LOVE this idea. You are amazing!
I’d love for you to stop by and enter my Pay It Forward Give-away. It’s gonna be lots of fun!
Have a great week!
Teresa <
Love it. Thanks for sharing.
Like the other ribbon organizer ideas, but LOOOOOVVVVVVVVE your idea!
i have a ribbon organizer but i need one for my wrapping paper. this is genius. i wonder if mr anhesty is down to helping me with this lil project…
Absolutely love this! And it seems so doable. Thanks for the idea!
Very, very cool! Thanks for sharing
Awesome
So organized. I love that it fits behind the door too!
What a fantastic idea! I love the result, and I also love your drying rack.
Love your ingenuity! I have something that works for me, except for the large rolls of paper. I am going to have to hunt down that tall basket shown in the country living pic. Have to find it…it’s perfect!!!
I love this!! I would love to do something similar for my craft ribbon. My wheels are a spinnin!!
So adorable! I’m in the process of doing my “craft area” (in the unused wet bar area of my home…hard to explain unless you’ve seen it!)
and I totally need ribbon and wrapping paper organizers. Space is at a premium and that is a more doable version than ones I’ve seen! I was thinking dowels with those plastic closet rod holder thingies. again, probably not clear. Anyway! I also LOVE the paper towel holder for ribbon!! Genius!
I’m commenting late today…preschool morning, errands, you know.
I LOVE that you mentioned putting this behind your laundry room door b/c that would be the perfect spot for me too. It’s just an empty, unused spot. Why not put my ribbon stash there? I have a bag FULL of ribbon that I started collecting to try and make the girls some hair bows. I’ve only made like 4 bows, but I still have a growing ribbon collection. I can’t resist a good ribbon.
Maybe you could add this to my Decorating Dilemmas Party this week as a SOLUTION???
I’m posting it tomorrow night (after 10 PM ET), but it will be up all day on Wed. too.
Hugs!
That is just totally awesome! I’m using that space in my laundry room to hang cleaning tools but I’m going to scope out if there’s another place I could put such an organizer. I’ve got tons of ribbon and they’re such a pain to store, find and use.
Great idea! I will definitely be trekking around my house to find a place for this!
So cute! You know what else I’ve been doing? Instead of buying all different kinds/colors of wrapping paper (since I never seem to have the right one for the occasion) I’ve just been buying rolls of plain white or kraft paper, and lots of different sizes and colors of cute ribbon. When I wrap a gift, I embellish it with leftover scrapbook paper – and it works because the wrapping paper is plain (white or tan).
My name is Sue and I’m a ribbon addict. I love what you’ve done here. I use the guestroom closet, but I like how yours almost becomes decoration for the room. Very nicely done!
Sue
Loving this!! My gift wrapping supplies are in dire need of some TLC. This looks totally doable.
As usual…amazing! Beautiful and functional…the best! Holly
Thanks so much for the link! What a nice surprise.
I LOVE ribbons and need my hubby to build one of those babies for me too!
xo,
cristin
I have the same problem since moving 30 minutes from town to a lake area. No littles one telling me at the last minute birthday, birthday………but showers for church, grad. , weddings, etc. going on all the time. Can’t run to town for paper and bows.everytime. I have a craft space that was suppose to be the utility room but the builder messed up…..hooray! I used pegboard & a crafting table to make a gift wrap station. I am loving it too.
You did a great job on getting it right for a laundry room area and making it handy! Love your idea ! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Bonnie
I love this idea and am especially in love with the color you’ve used here and on the laundry room drying rack. I’m slightly obsessed with that color!
What a great way to organize ribbons and paper… Love it! I have a great laundry area and it will fit in just right… Thank you for such great and easy idea…. have a great week.
Hugs;
Alaura
Wow! That is a wonderful idea Kate. Looking forward to meeting you in Nashville! Also, I live in SO Oregon — wonder how far we are from each other?
Oh no! Another thing to put on my “to do” list
.
I love coming here just to look at all your luscious photos
And my new resolution? To learn to use all the power tools in the garage. You inspire me.
Love this idea!!! I’ve been looking for organization ideas for my crap…I mean craft room and was thinking of how I could copy all the PB ideas. This is great!!!
These are great! THANK YOU!
This is so great! I’d love to have all of my wrapping stuff so organized and pretty. I keep mine in a long Rubbermaid that rolls under my bed. It’s handy, but not nearly as nice to look at!
What a great idea! Thanks for the inspiration.
Ok so I saw your stair case banister a long time ago but I was sitting in my daughters nursey and hating her armoire. Loved it at first but I am changing the style of the room so I don’t know what kind of wood it is but I want to get rid of the paint color and make it look espresso like her crib. Do I do what you did or is there other steps or products?? Please help.
You are such a crafty goddess! Wonderful project.
I do have to work on my ribbon storage! I actually have the storage, but I bought more ribbon in the past couple of months that still has to be put away, so I might as well do it neatly. I love this organizer, Kate! It’s functional, it’s out of the way, it’s colorful ~ I think you did a great job of making your own. And why not use the ironing board to wrap gifts. That would be about the only use it gets in my house {I hate to iron}!
I’m DROOLING! Thank you for inspiring me to do more!!!
Awesome idea. I use bags mostly but I really like the idea for the ribbon
which I have a lot of. Thanks for sharing.