The North Pole called and Santa gave me an A+ on today’s post! That’s because today I am sharing a corner of the house that is fully dedicated to all things related to wrapping gifts and I got it all Christmas-ified just in time! This tiny nook of the house has actually taken months to complete. Not because the space is large, it is actually quite tiny. This space took months because it has been a multi-step process to get it “done” and today I will share how I put this together.
Welcome to our Wrapping Paper Nook, a small closet that packs a big punch!
SOURCES: Blue & White Swan Peel n’ Stick Wallpaper || Tension Rods || Peg Board Hooks || Gold Scissors
It certainly did not look like this a few months ago. Let’s take a look at where we started. These are the kind of pictures I cannot believe I share, but you need to see in order to truly understand how far we came with this one.
Yikes.
But this closet is real life and this is what our storage closet looked like after four years of stacking things up that I didn’t know what to do with in the house. So after I purged and and dealt with the throw pillows (remember I shared that post here 20 Minute Organizing || Throw Pillow Storage) I had a vision to turn this end of the closet into a wrapping paper storage spot.
Thankfully I had already spent some time corralling all of our wrapping supplies and I shared it in this post 20 Minute Organizing || Wrapping Paper . So I had a pretty good handle on the wrapping supplies I had. See what I mean? It was a process just to get to a starting point for this space and it really did takes months to get it complete.
So let’s get to the good part and talk about how this nook came together. When I shared a sneak peak of this space on Instagram so many people asked how I put this together so let me break a few things down. There were a few happy accidents along the way, some peel n’ stick wallpaper and some general zhushing.
WRAPPING PAPER NOOK || Step 1: THE DESK
On the other side of this back nook wall are the built in bookshelves in our living room. As I was purging this closet I came across an extra shelf for the bookshelves. And you can imagine my delight when I realized that the shelf could work perfect as a desk surface because it fit this space perfectly. One side of the nook even had a perfect lip to rest and I just had to add some brackets on the other side to give it a lip. See what I mean about a happy accident? Serendipitous!
STEP TWO : THE STATEMENT WALL
Once I had my “desk” surface it was time to deal with the wall. A previous owner had installed wire shelving similar to what you see on the right side of the closet across this back wall. However, someone along the way had removed the actual shelves. But all of the anchors and screws were still in place on the wall and there were a few larger holes from over the years. It was definitely going to take some work to get the walls in good shape to paint.
So I did what any smart (lazy?) person would do. Instead of removing all of those screws and patching all of the holes and painting the walls… I removed all of the screws and decided to use peel n’ stick wallpaper to cover the holes right up. I’ll take pretty over perfect any day.
I had done peel n’ stick wallpaper once before in the boys bathroom so I wasn’t completely afraid to try, but it’s always a bit overwhelming to think about wallpapering. I did a little research and found this fun blue and white swan art deco pattern and was instantly smitten. The reviews were good and price was reasonable. Unfortunately one roll wasn’t quite enough so I had to order two rolls to complete the wall. But that’s ok because it truly “MAKES” the space and it served a purpose in covering all of those holes so I figured it was worth the investment.
SOURCES: Blue & White Swan Peel n’ Stick Wallpaper || Tension Rods || Peg Board Hooks || Gold Scissors
STEP THREE : PEG BOARD WALL
So now let’s talk about the peg board wall. You can see how the left side wall looked a little unfinished in this below picture and was literally SCREAMING to have some peg board attached to it. And this was my second happy accident!
I measured my wall area and off to Home Depot I went fully expecting that finding peg board to fit here was going to be an expensive and painful part of the process. Turns out that the stock piece of pre-cut peg board was nearly the exact measurements that I needed for my space and required no cutting. I was able to screw the peg board directly onto those raised panels. I tell you – it was divine intervention how perfect this worked out!
STEP FOUR: MAKE IT PRETTY AND PRACTICAL
Alright, so we’ve got the basics in place with the desk, wallpapered wall and the peg board. Now it’s just time to make it practical and pretty! I decided a few tension rods across the top would be fun.
Was this necessary?
Not at all.
Do I love it?
You betcha.
I found a pair on Amazon and one holds some pretty paper and the other holds some of my favorite ribbons. The small basket on the side of the desk holds oversized wrapping paper and gift boxes.
The gold lamp was in my stash but want to hear something cool? The lightbulb is a bluetooth speaker! So when I am in here wrapping I can play music through the lamp. It’s the little things…
To pull together the rest of this nook, I just turned on some Christmas music (yes, playing it through my lamp) and started collecting baskets and bins to get everything organized and in a designated spot. For the ribbons I am using glass vases to stack them and also to corral all of the pretty ribbon clippings…
I spray painted that tape dispenser gold years ago and then I just piled all of the Christmas goodies into another vase… those gold scissors were a gift from my blogging bestie Rachael and they just make me happy…. the Santa mug is from my collection and holds pretty pens…
and the wrapping paper got corralled into a basket down below.
I am officially ready to wrap! (Now I guess I just need to start my Christmas shopping….)
SOURCES: Blue & White Swan Peel n’ Stick Wallpaper || Tension Rods || Peg Board Hooks || Gold Scissors
So what do you think? Do you have an underused nook in your house that you could rework? I would have never thought I could have my very own wrapping paper room- but sometimes you just need to think outside the box! 🙂
xoxo-
Heather
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