Building your own ink pad storage unit.

Building your own ink pad storage unit. (reposted from 07/16/2016)

Hi everyone!  A while back I posted photos of an ink pad storage unit that I made out of foam board to fit into my  Expedit shelving from IKEA.  A lot of you asked me to post details on how it was made.  Well, I was finally in need of another one so as promised, I snapped a few pictures (ok...a LOT of pictures) of the process and jotted down some measurements for you.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

As you can see this fits perfectly into my shelving unit.  It houses 32 standard sized ink pads such as ones from Catherine Pooler Designs, The Ton and Hero Arts, etc.

Tools needed for cutting:  

t-square ruler

craft knife or utility knife

measuring tape

pencil.

Tools needed for assembly:

glue gun

glue sticks

2 sheets of Foam Board:

20 x 30 x 3/16 in 

First I cut all of my pieces out.  I have to say  my t-square ruler was the key tool to making this task quick and easy.  I don't think I would attempt this without one. There is a lot of cutting involved but it only took me a little over an hour to complete this task.  Here are my measurements:

1 back piece:  13 x 12 1/2"

2 sides and 1 middle piece:  4 1/2 x 12 1/2"

1 top and 1 bottom piece:  13 x 4 5/8"

16 shelves:  4 x 6 1/8"

32 shelf glides:  4 x 1 1/4"

front moulding piece:  13 x 1 1/16"  

First thing to do is fire up that glue gun and get it nice and hot.  Then, start with laying out your pieces where they're going to go, starting with the back, the bottom, the two sides and the middle piece.

Begin by gluing the back piece to the top of the bottom piece.  This is the tricky part that can throw off your whole project so make sure you put the glue on the side of the back piece and then butt the bottom piece up to it.  DO NOT put the bottom piece on top of the back piece.  I hope that makes sense.  But if you look closely at this picture you'll see that the side piece is sitting on top of the back piece and the bottom piece is not..

I then measured and marked the center of the back piece and glued the middle piece in following the marked guide.  Then the other side piece was glued on.  This picture shows better that both side pieces and the middle piece are glued to the top of the back piece and also to the bottom piece.

Now to start building the shelves you start with a shelf glide.

Start by gluing two in place

Then I just set the shelf in next to the glides but DO NOT GLUE!  None of the shelves will be glued into this shelf.  They will all be removable.  This makes it adjustable but also makes it a lot easier to assemble.  Now glue in two more glides.

See how easy it slides in and out of place?

Keep gluing on the glides until all of the shelving is in place.

Standing the shelf upright, you'll be amazed at how sturdy it is.  I needed to make this unit fit into my shelving cubby so there will be a small area at the top that will be empty space.  You could totally make adjustments to the sizes to fit your own needs though.  I just chose to cover up the space and call it a day.

Now you can glue the top onto the shelf.  To cover up the small gap at the top I added a piece to act as moulding.  I actually kind of like the finished look that the moulding piece gives it.  Check out those sliding shelves!

And here are my matching ink pad storage units side by side.  I slide mine to the back of my shelf to leave areas to display my cards and other things.  This shelf was really an easy project that took about 2 hours to make and cost under $10.

Update 07/02/2020 :  As my ink collection has grown, I have added a couple more of these storage units.  They are still holding strong!

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that I've assisted in a lot of little ink pads finding a new home.

Have a great day!