Decorated Ribbon Storage Box

A Fancy Box for Your Ribbons

Here's a cute and tidy way to organize and dispense your beautiful ribbons.

No more spools of ribbon unraveling and getting all tangled up.

Note that there are two dowels running lengthwise through the box interior.

Spools of ribbon are strung along the dowels with the ribbon ends feeding out through grommeted holes on one or both long sides, depending on how many spools of ribbon will fit inside.

Organize your ribbons by color or fabric.

I used this one just for my organza ribbons. Stack two or more of these boxes if needed and all your ribbons will be easy to find and dispense.

Ribbon Storage Box Materials

• Pioneer Photo Storage Box
• 24 ½"x 3/8" wood dowel
• 4 Lara's Crafts 3/8"x 1" wood dowel caps
• 8 Sewing Basket 3/8" metal eyelets or grommets
• 1 Sewing Basket 3/8" eyelet tool
• Delta Ceramcoat Ivory Acrylic Paint
• Paint brush
• DuraClear Water Based Varnish
• Aleene's Clear Quick Dry Glue
• Awl
• Power drill and a 3/8" drill bit
• Pencil
• Ruler

Assembling the Ribbon Box

These instructions are for the 8-hole box shown in the photos; but are easy to adjust to suit your needs. Remove the label holder plate from the short end of the storage box.

Measure and mark where the eight holes will go on the outside of the box. Remember, the lid will be on; so be sure to leave enough clearance at the top.

You can run the holes in two rows as I have done or do a zig zag pattern.

More holes can be done. Just make sure you have enough eyelets for all the holes you want.

About ten holes will dispense a full box of ribbons.

With the awl, poke a small hole to mark where you will drill. Since this box is a medium weight cardboard box, it will be very easy to drill the holes.

Mark two holes at each end and do the same with the awl. These will be for the dowels.

These are spaced about 3 ¾" apart in the middle. You will want to hold your ribbon spools in the box to see just how high the holes should go to allow for easy movement in the box.

If the small holes left by the label plate will not be covered by the placement of the dowel caps, cover them with tiny scraps of matching tissue paper.

Reinforce by filling each hole with Tacky glue from the inside and let dry.

Drill all the holes.

Using the eyelets and the tool, place a metal eyelet in each hole on the side of the box. Follow the directions on the package for proper use of the tool.

Cut the dowel into 2 12 ¼" lengths.

Paint the dowels and the dowel caps ivory or color of your choice to match your box. Let dry and apply a layer of varnish.

Glue a dowel cap on one end of each dowel.

Thread each dowel through the two holes at one end of the box just to the inside and start placing your ribbon spools on the dowels. Do not glue the dowel cap onto the other end, so that you can remove it to change spools when each one runs out of ribbon.

Thread the ribbons over to the side and out the eyelet holes. Two smaller width ribbons can be put together through one hole. The wider ribbons should have their own hole for dispensing.

Embellish the top as desired.

Here I have used scrapbooking papers in various designs and colors. One has eyelets which I have run some satin ribbon through.