Studio Ribbon Storage

Many of you may already know that my husband and I recently built a new home which we moved into a few short weeks ago.  One of the area that I dedicated a lot of time to was my new studio, the functionality of it and ideal organization for all of my supplies.  This month’s newsletter is the first of a series I will be sharing with you each month.  I will be focusing on the details of my organization choices and why they function well for me.  My hope is that you may be able to take away a little something to enrich your own space, making it more user-friendly and allowing you more time for actual stamping!

This month I am focusing on ribbon storage.  I wish I could just instantly link you to a product I purchased for my Papertrey ribbon spools, but I am afraid after endless searching, I ended up having my husband, David, design a unit that met my needs.  I wanted something that allowed me to store all of my ribbon together in a compact area.  I wanted there to be an effective way for the ribbon to sit out within reach without the possibility of rolling away.  The end result was this:

The overall unit measures 33-1/2″ x 23-1/2″ and only 3-1/2″ deep.  It takes up a very small footprint on my stamping table, which is always at the forefront of my mind when selecting new storage.  I just now have filled the shelf to capacity with all of the Papertrey colors, approximately 180 spools of our ribbon, so it is very accommodating.  I have already put in an order for a second unit of the same dimensions for the other end of my table to hold future color releases.

I thought I would provide a few brief instructions as to how you could go about constructing this yourself.  It is really quite simple and inexpensive to create.  The only tools you need are a saw and a hammer.  You can change the dimensions to fit your space if you wish.  There are lots of options for customization since it is such a simple design.  These are the supplies you will need:

Now, this project is actually created with “1×4’s” and “1×3’s”.  If you are familiar with wood dimensions, “1×4’s” and “1×3’s” aren’t truly those measurements, but that is what you would look for at your home improvement store.  I provided you with the actual measurements of the wood in all of the instructions & supply lists that follow, just to try to keep things simple when you begin to build.  

1. To construct this shelf, you want to build the exterior frame first.  Nail together the four exterior pieces at the corners.

2.  Trace the outline of the frame onto the front of the bead board/plywood and cut to size.  Attach the frame to the front of the bead board/plywood with nails.

3. Attach the remainder of the shelves, approximately 4-3/4″ apart.

4.  Attach the molding to the front of each shelf.

As you can see, the molding acts as a small ledge to prevent the ribbon spools from rolling off the shelf, but at the same time, the spools remain easy to get to.

After you have completed the shelf, you can choose to paint the entire thing white as I did here, or you can stain it.  Whichever would fit your decor.  I hope that you have enjoyed this little peek into my ribbon storage and I look forward to sharing more from the studio in the future!