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.
I already emailed my husband asking if he could help me make one of these very soon. Love how you adapted it to be long and skinny. Thanks for the inspiration!
Wow. That is really cool. Nice work and thank you for sharing. You are very creative. :)
I love it! I recently did some wooden ribbon organizers. They turned out really cute! I have not put up a tutorial yet, but I will soon!
I have them listed in my shop though! :)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36987089
Martha
Oh wow, what a great idea!
That’s my weekend project sorted! Thanks Kate – brilliant as always.
Get out! I am so serious…I am dying! That is incredibly awesome!
You are just brilliant.
I’m amazed at your skills!!!! WOW!
Love love love it.
I love your ribbon organizer. I have been trying to find something that I live and I totally love what you have done. I might have to steal this idea from you. Thank you so much for sharing.
That’s gorgeous! I love this so, so much! Thanks tons for sharing the details- you’re amazing! I’ll be linking.
I’m so impressed. You did a great job. I love this idea and I’m going to have to copy it soon. Thanks for sharing!
I want to make one of these SO BAD!! Thank you so much for sharing how you did it!
Come share your creation at my party: Thursday’s Treasures!
http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2010/01/thursdays-treasures-week-5.html
This is fab! What a great way to organize all the bits and pieces that you need for wrapping. And such an easy project, too… I have a very messy and far-too-small shoe carton in which I collect new and used ribbons. And I always swear when I look for something in it. The rolls of wrapping paper are difficult to reach on the top of a cupboard. Have to copy your organiser! Thanks for sharing!
Did you see they featured this on Apartment Therapy?? Very cool. :)
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/organizing/diy-behind-the-door-wrapping-station-106128?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+apartmenttherapy/main+(Main)
Very cool! Thanks!
Hi Katie,
Just came over via AT and love your site! This is a genius idea, well done & thanks for the how to. I’m off to see if I can find a nook in my house for one :)
Looks like I just found my next project to build! I have one of those ugly plastic wrapping paper holders, and it scrunches all the paper up and rips it! This is such a great idea!
So nice, I will have to make one myself. Our laundry room has the same layout with the doors flush to the wall. I absolutely adore the gift wrap station. It’s perfect, heck, I would buy one if I saw it in the store.
I love your blog and I loved this project! I just wrote a blog post about your awesome project and my own fail at organizing wrapping paper. Hope you have time to check it out!
http://thecottageapartment.blogspot.com/2010/01/wrapping-paper-organizer-laughs.html
I love love this d.i.y project! It would be so useful to me when i get my new home! Thanks! :D
I love the idea of wrapping paper on a vertical dowel! I’ve tried the ribbon on a dowel idea already, but became immediately frustrated upon finishing a roll of ribbon right in the middle of the dowel… haha! Needless to say, the empty spool will sit there until I have a few more empty spools. I am looking into installing a simple version of the Martha Stewart wall dispenser (second from the last picture).
Tall and skinny is definitely the way to go, by the way. I had 3 foot dowels, which sagged in the middle :-/
We shared this with all the Floral Supply Syndicate fans on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Floral-Supply-Syndicate/60346884209?ref=ts
Omg, ribbons, so cute!!!
Seriously, it’s a great idea you’ve got there, thanks for sharing.
This looks fantastic! Are you worried at all about the humidity in the laundry room and its effect on the wrapping paper?
love this. I could totally use this.
Organizer – total win !
I’ll be making one.
Ooh, I love it!I can’t wait to make one!
[...] Check out Erika’s craft station, inspired by this gift wrap organizer. [...]
I love this!
SUCH a great idea, just in time for Spring Cleaning! I’ve added this to my “Get Organized” roundup for today, and you can grab an “I’ve been featured badge” if you’d like!
Thanks so much for the terrific idea! :)
[...] source [...]
I love your wallpaper organizer and have purchased all of the supplies to get started on the project. Before I start, I have a question that I am hoping you can answer. How can I adapt the organizer to accomodate gift bags and sheets of tissue? I don’t want to place them as an afterthought, but am at a loss to incorporate it into this design.
Thank-you!
My husband and I built this organizer this past weekend. It was fun to build and very easy. Thanks so much!!! You are brilliant! Being a bit Type A, I was looking for info about how to space the holes and how many inches down from the top to place the hooks. Using your picture as a guide helped calm my Type A nerves and helped me to just go with it. The organizer looks great tucked into a 26 inch space on one size of sliding closet doors. Now I want to build your drying rack, but I’ll have to find room for it first!
looks great.. but I still have the problem of the rolls all unrolling when you hang them like that.. so I have been just using cheap plastic bins which work great.. so is there a secret to keeping the bolts from unrolling.. besides tape or pins? and I also notice that rolls are all different sizes of holes some you have to cut larger etc… just curious.. t hanks!
[...] Ready to Gift Wrap. One of the reasons I built my gift wrap organizer last January was because of the disorganization I felt with my holiday gift wrap. Now, I have [...]
May I ask how you keep your 4 year old from grabbing sheets of the wrapping paper and just running away with them, un-rolling the entire roll? LOL. I know this is what my little guy would do. What a great idea though!
really need this project on our Shop!
Thats a great custom solution for a real problem. You can always take it a step further and create custom wrapping paper!
Love the gift wrapping station! I would love if you would link this to my new Organizing Mission Monday link party.
Thanks!
I just happened across your site and honey, you are AMAZING.
you’re a goddess!
After seeing this amazing project here on your blog last year, I took myself off to the Hardware Store purchased timber, glue, dowel etc and set about making one for myself! Best thing I ever did – I added a little shelf at the top for my cards and have been warpping organised ever since!
You are such an inspiration – thanks for inspiring me to give DIY a try!!!
This looks great. Dumb question: How do you remove the wrapping paper? Does the vertical dowel get lifted up? Is there sufficient clearance from the ribbon-holding dowel to remove the paper without removing the lower ribbon dowel? Or do you just lift it a little and slip the paper roll off from the bottom? Are the holes at the bottom of the frame (holding the lower end of the wrapping paper dowel) drilled all the way through, or just enough to secure the bottom end of the WP dowel? Thanks for your answers. I want to show this to the Mr. Fix It in my house!
Hey Ellen, it’s super simple, I just lift up the dowel rod and the old roll slides right out. Easy peasy.
Kate
I love this idea. Great job! Thanks for sharing!