Wrapping Station

Isn't it pretty!! I know we all have an area like this in our homes dedicated to the purpose of wrapping a gift. What? Why are you laughing?? Oh - you don't have a dedicated area like this? - yea, me neither. This is actually a picture from Country Living and would look ridiculous in pretty much any room of my house. Not that I wouldn't love it - it's just not at all practical. 


What I do have is an ironing board. (I can see you're impressed.) This was the beginning of my gift wrapping station. It is a great height for wrapping gifts, easy to set up and take down, and seldom used for anything else. I do iron, sometimes... occasionally... okay!! Rarely, if ever. Anyhow... moving on. 


So, now I have my table and just need to figure out the rest of the above set up. I have the luxury right now of a guest room, it is used sporadically, but has opportunities for storage. If you have a bit of space in the laundry room, under your bed or your kids bed or even just a corner you have the makings for a gift wrap station as well.


Now, go to Google and do an image search for gift wrap organizers. There is going to be something there that will fit your space, whether it's under the bed or standing up in the corner. This is the one I have, but filled it looks nothing like this:

and here is why - The wrapping paper I bought after Christmas last year is really really wide and sticks out of the top when it's mostly zipped up. I'm okay with that, but if you have some OCDness, I'd be aware of that when shopping. When shopping the after Christmas sales, look for neutral papers that don't scream Christmas - it's a challenge, but it can be done. I bought a bunch of solid papers one year in purples and teals, red is also great and works for Valentine's Day, 4th of July (any of the Patriotic holidays really) and is gender neutral. Also buy one large roll of brown craft paper. You can personalize solids and craft paper in hundreds of ways.

I also do not keep fluffy bows. Why - because unless you are hand delivering the gift to the person within an hour or so, the thing is gonna get squished. It's inevitable, one of Newton's Laws I'm pretty sure  - so why fight against nature. Instead get yourself to Party City or to Oriental Trading Co. and buy two big spools of curly ribbon. One in a boy color or neutral and one in a girly color. 

This one from Oriental Trading is $3.50 for 500 yards. I've had mine for YEARS and still have over half of the spool so make sure you get colors that you like and can be used together or separately and for both genders.  Now go to Google and look up how to make pretty bows using curly ribbon.

What else..... a few gift bags and some tissue paper. A really great pair of scissors and a roll of tape. A pen. That's it! Keep all of this together and threaten the family that the scissors and tape are not to be moved from this spot on penalty of limb amputation. If you can control that, then you've got yourself a wrapping station!!

(Disclaimer: These are NOT my Christmas wrapping supplies! Those are stored with the Christmas tree and ornaments and come out at the appropriate time. There isn't a space large enough for me to include all of the above in addition to all of the crap I have for Christmas wrapping. Just wanted to make that clear in case you were thinking otherwise. Yea, I'm good but I'm not THAT good!!)