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Fluted DIY Utensil Holder [from dollar store supplies!]

A beautiful fluted DIY Utensil Holder! DIY on a budget, and organize your kitchen with an amazing utensil holder from dollar store supplies!

beautiful DIY utensil holder

My kitchen cupboards were a mess. I’m not afraid to admit it, lol. They were in desperate need of some organization, so I hit up our dollar store this month and gave the cupboard under the sink, and the pots and pans cupboard some much needed love. Of course that also snowballed into a countertop problem…. lol. I made this fluted DIY utensil holder too, and I’m in love with the look!

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Whenever I see wood supplies at the dollar store, I scoop some of them up because it’s usually very affordable, and wood is by far the easiest stuff to DIY with! Paint it, stain it, cut it, glue it… so many possibilities!

The big glass vase was a great dollar store find too, because it’s big enough to be a planter, vase, or utensil holder. When I saw the two of these together, I knew I could make a fun textured pattern for a utensil holder rather then just a plain glass container on the counter.

What Does Fluted Mean?

Before I get into make the DIY utensil holder, I’ll quickly explain why I went with this fun design! When we use the term, fluted in design, we’re referring to the shallow grooves along a surface, usually vertically in design. Think of all those regal columns with long fluted edges in architecture! “Fluted” furniture and DIYs are becoming increasingly popular and it can be fairly inexpensive to create.

These beautiful fluted cabinet doors are a stunning example of someone DIYing this texture!

The DIY slatted sideboard is another example of this fun furniture trend, and shows off that flutted texture (and also might be one of my favourite ever DIYs!).

DIY black sideboard makeover

How to Make a fluted Utensil Holder

This project is super simple! Only requires one tool, a couple of dollar store finds, and a little bit of time.

For this DIY I used the glass vase from the dollar store, and I bought 10 packs of the dowels. I ended up opening 9 packs, and used 84 dowels I believe. At $1.25 per bag, that’s still very affordable!

making a jig for mitre saw cuts

The first thing I had to do was measure the vertical side of the glass vase so that I knew what size to cut the dowels. Once I knew the height (just over 8″), I needed to cut the wood dowels.

I used my mitre saw for cutting, but you can use any saw. I didn’t want to measure 84 times, so I measured the distance from the saw once, and clamped a scrap wood block in that position so I had a block to set my dowels against at a consistent length.

dollar store dowel DIY

Once my block was set, I cut a dowel, double check that the height was right, and then got to work cutting 83 more!

When they were all cut, I decided to stain them. You can leave them natural looking too if you prefer. The staining was easily the longest part of this process, but probably still didn’t actually take that long, lol.

After you stain you also want to apply a couple coats of varnish. Since this guy is sitting on the counter and likely will be some splashes or need to be wiped down, the varnish is necessary to protect it.

best glue for wood on glass

The final step is to attach the wood dowels. I wanted to use a glue that wouldn’t be too noticeable, so if you looked inside you didn’t see a bunch of ugly glue blobs, lol.

I tried a couple of glues, but the one that worked the best, was this multi grip glue! It took a few minutes to set, but was worth the wait!

I glued three dowels to start and let them set so that they wouldn’t shift when I was gluing the rest in place after. The next day I glued the rest of the dowels down one at a time, and used some painters tape to make sure they all sat flat against the vase as I went.

Video of How to Make Your Utensil Holder

If you want to see this whole process, it’s in this YouTube video! You can also see the dollar store hacks I used to organize my cupboards!

Our Fluted DIY Utensil Holder

I love everything about this DIY! It’s super affordable, modern, and textured. It adds so much to the countertop visually, and it’s practical!

black countertops in kitchen
DIY fluted decor
fluted dollar store DIY
black and white modern kitchen
fluted dollar store DIY

Fluted DIY Utensil Holder

Yield: 1
Prep Time: 1 hour
Active Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: $10
A beautiful fluted DIY Utensil Holder! DIY on a budget, and organize your kitchen with an amazing utensil holder from dollar store supplies!

Materials

  • Glass vase
  • Wood dowels
  • Wood stain
  • Wood varnish
  • Glue

Tools

  • Mitre Saw

Instructions

  1. Determine the height of your vase and cut your dowels down to size.
  2. Stain dowels
  3. Varnish dowels (at least two coats)
  4. Attach stained wood dowels to glass vase

Notes

Find more great Kitchen Dollar Store projects in this video: https://youtu.be/861DuYSKcwY

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

If you’re looking for a fun furniture upcycle project, check out this DIY Slatted Sideboard!

before and after DIY sideboard makeover

Karla

Saturday 8th of January 2022

I am very excited to do this at our girls crafting weekend next month. It is perfect!

Lindi

Tuesday 11th of January 2022

Ohh! I love that! Such a great project to do while you're socializing! Enjoy :)

Tiffany

Monday 30th of August 2021

Hi! What size dowels did you use fo this?

Lindi

Thursday 2nd of September 2021

I think they were a 1/4"

EngPublisher

Saturday 20th of March 2021

Beautiful

Courtney Mury

Saturday 13th of March 2021

These were great ideas! :)

Lindi

Monday 15th of March 2021

Thank you! So quick and easy!

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