DIY Recycled Vertical Storage

Today’s project finally uses up the cardboard tubes I’ve been moving around for many, many years {more than I care to say!}. I’ve paired them with a second drawer from my old dresser for some fun, & useful, vertical storage. I am so very, very happy that these tubes are finally wrangled & in control!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission if you buy something through my link or ad. This does not change your cost it just helps keep this blog running. Thanks for your support! See Privacy Policy & Affiliate Deals page for more information.

The Tubes

These cardboard tubes used to be the centers for plotter paper. For those that don’t know, a plotter is a big printer used to print off large scale drawings. I slowly collected them over 13 years from the last drafting job I had. I haven’t been a drafter for about 4 years, so yea these have been haunting me for a while!

They have always been great for storing paper rolls, dowels, curtain rods, & such, but one little bump & they all fall over. Boo! I realized I could pair them with one of the drawers from my old dresser to help hold them up.

I took them to my dad’s for help cutting them down to size. He used his table saw, set up a jig, & zipped them on out! They are cut to 12″, 18″, & 24″ tall.

Each tube had a plastic cap in the end to help hold it on the plotter. I’ll be using these to hold the tubes in drawer.

I used some fine grit sandpaper to rub off the cut edges. When I counted up the tubes & the plastic caps I realized I was two short!

That’s okay, I have a solution for that! ; )

Assembly

Once I decided on a layout, I arranged all the plastic caps on the bottom & glued them down using e6000 glue. This stuff works for all kinds of things!

I posted this on Instagram yesterday because it made me think of donuts & then I wanted a donut!

I didn’t want to paint the inside, since it’s mostly not visible with the tubes in it. After some pondering, I decided to line it with newspaper. Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the decoupaged newspaper, but I did take pictures of some fun comics & a strange article I found!

These were, of course, added over the other newsprint. One day some other DIYer will find this & wonder why?, just why? I just hope none of my Australian friends are having troubles with hairy panic!

Anyway, once everything was dry, I pushed the tubes on the caps & marveled at my genius! Haha!

Painting the Drawer

So, I gave the Rustoleum Chalked Paint another go & I’m still not digging it! Look at those runs!

The coverage isn’t that great either…

It does come in a brush on as well, so maybe I’ll try that out. I won’t be buying the spray again. I do love this oil rubbed bronze spray paint I got.

It gave new life to my handles!

Here it is all assembled:

I like how it turned out, but I really love that those cardboard tubes won’t be falling over anymore!

I scuffed the corners a bit too…

So useful!

Okay, I need to fill this up more & move it to it’s proper place, so see y’all on Friday!

Pin it for later!

awesome cardboard tube wall at Perkins + Will Boston architectural offices