If you have an IKEA near you, you know the joys of a good IKEA stroll. I came upon clearance paper rolls on my last wander, and knew something must be done with them. Seriously they were less than $2.50 a roll so I may have stocked up… Initially I thought I would just hoard them, but then I remembered this really popular image on Pinterest of a little girl sitting at a stool and drawing on a roll that is hung on the wall and thought “AH-HA! I can totally make a DIY butcher paper roll holder with IKEA supplies!”
It worked perfectly for my quest for ways to get Emme interested and experimenting with drawing. Also great because I really wanted to get Emme an easel but we still live in an apartment in Japan and neither her room or my office have any space for said easel. Wall space it is. I have a great skinny wall in my kitchen/living room what wasn’t doing much so I figured that was the perfect spot for my DIY butcher paper roll holder! It is also easily visible from both the kitchen and living room so I am hopeful she enjoys drawing there while I am cooking or watching HGTV. 😂 Also. Yes, Emme has accidentally drawn on the wall but that is what magic erasers are for.
PS – this post contains shoppable Amazon Affiliate links (see full disclosure at the end of post).
IKEA Supplies ($14.42 total)
- Paper roll ($4.99 or $2.50 if you’re lucky like me)
- Tension Curtain rod ($3.99)
- SUNNERSTA rail with hooks and cups (they don’t sell individual pieces anymore)
Amazon Version of supplies (roughly $60 total?)
- Brass curtain rod and hardware ($19.99)
- Brown butcher paper roll ($15.99)
- White butcher paper roll ($14.99)
- If you don’t want to pay more you could also make your own. I would probably just use a 1×2″ wooden board cut to size and screwed into the wall with a little nut between the wall and wood for the paper to slip through.
Done for you holders
- Melissa and Doug table top holder (could screw into the wall?)
- Butcher block paper roll holder
Instructions
Okay so I know initially this was supposed to be a project for Emme but when I realized it wouldn’t fit in her room anyways it turned into also a drawing space for me. 😂 I decided to mount the roll high enough so that I could also draw or write on the paper! Maybe we can play family pictionary on it one day? 😬
Spray it all
Probably should have bought black hardware because that also matches my house very well. I kept thinking of brass because I initially thought it was going in Emme’s room. I bought all white thinking I would spray paint it gold/brass. Sooo then I had to spray paint everything black. Spray paint is amazingly hard to find in Japan when you don’t speak or read Japanese. 😂 I ended finding Rustoleum flat black at the BX. This only took about half an hour of light coats and wait times. I always do a thin coat, wait a few minutes, do another, wait 10 or so minutes, flip, and repeat.
Hang the rod and hardware
The first step is to decide how high you want the paper roll start to be. Make sure you know how wide your roll is too, so that your pole is far enough off of the wall. Measure and install your curtain rod hardware. and thread the paper roll so that the paper unrolls against the wall (opposite of how everyone likes their toilet paper rolls to hang). 😂
Attach the cross bar
Pull the paper roll down the the floor. I decided I will need two bars later because I want to be able to move my little buckets up and down depending on whether Emme is using the paper or not. If I leave the buckets at her height at al time, markers and crayons will be all over the house. So later I need to make another ikea trip and add a bar more at my height. Anyways. Mark where you want the rail to go, equal distance on either side of the paper and follow the mounting instructions on the rail (it comes with the screws).
Have fun!
That’s pretty much it for the DIY butcher paper roll holder! Put your preferred art supplies in the bucket and enjoy! I am going to use this to leave notes for Edgar and reminders for myself, too! Also, side note, I do not actually recommend putting that many supplies in each bucket for a toddler. Give them a few select colors/materials to work with. For an even easier easel hack if you have a window, click here!
