I made these Christmas gift boxes to fit in my bookcase nooks almost 10 years ago. This is the year that I change the wrapping for the very first time. I know. Fascinating and mundane at the same time.
The idea or making fake gifts to put in my bookcases originally came to me when I saw the exact same thing at a friend's house and copied it.
I made it much better than he did because a) I'm telling the story and b) his kids picked out his wrapping paper and kids have absurd taste.
I built these built in bookcases just before Christmas in 2016. You can read a bit about how I built them here and see their full reveal including the secret storage compartments they have here. The first year I built them is the first year I made these black, gold and greenery adorned boxes.
So the bookcase presents were born. (copied, stolen, whatever)
Bookcase Gift Boxes
2 ways to make them
Custom DIY with woodworking
As far as DIYS using tools, this one is a level 1 in terms of difficulty. You just cut some 2x2's so they fit the size of your book nook and screw them together.
Super-Easy DIY with a glass of wine in one hand
Wrap some presents in whatever boxes you have laying around that fit in your bookcases. Stick them in so the bows and ribbon face out. Sip.
Changes For 2024
It was way too easy to punch a hole in the paper when I first made these. I did them really quickly.
When I originally made them I just used 2x2s and made a frame. This year I will add a thin piece of wood or stiff cardboard to the face of the frame.
They'll be easier to wrap with a solid surface and I won't have to worry about punching holes in the paper when I make, hang, or store them.
Materials
- Two 8' long 2x2s
- Stiff cardboard cut to size* (new this year)
- Wrapping paper
- Ribbon
- Fake or real greenery
- 2.5" nails or screws
- Scotch tape
- White glue or staple gun
Instructions
Choose whatever wrapping paper you want! Ribbon too.
NOTE: Matte paper is better than shiny because shiny shows all the wrinkles, marks etc.
The unexpected genius of this
If you have 1.5" of space behind your books on the bookcase you can just push them back and stick the gift box in front of everything. When it's time to get rid of them you slide them out and your bookcases are exactly like they were before Christmas. It's a Christmas miracle, cue the squirming baby Jesus.
In other words, you don't have to find anywhere to store what's normally in your bookcases as long as you can push them back by a little more than an inch.
Put sprigs of real greenery in floral vials with water and tuck those in the bows if you're having the kind of super-fancy night you always imagine you will but never do.
Or just do it for you.
I searched around big, bad Amazon for a while and found what I think are best selection of fake greenery picks for Christmas.
I chose this artificial pine because the stems are wood coloured, not green which makes them natural looking.
A triple mix of various eucalyptus stems.
I chose this pine sprig because it looks like bonsai. It's 14" long from tip to tail but you can cut the stem shorter or individual sprigs from it.
You'll see these boxes done with their new wrapping in my annual Christmas House tour. If you're looking for Christmas decorating inspiration before then, here's a random Christmas House Tour from 2020
Full Instructions for the DIY bookcase presents below.
Fake Bookcase Presents
A fast and easy way to give your bookcases that cozy holiday feeling. These measurements are for a standard Ikea Billy Bookcase but can be revised to fit any bookcase.
Materials
- Two 8' long 2x2s.
- Wrapping paper.
- Ribbon.
- Fake or real greenery.
- 2.5" nails or screws.
- Scotch tape
- White glue or staple gun.
Instructions
- Cut the 2x2s into 14" lengths. (you'll need 8 of them for 4 presents)
- Cut the 2x2s into 8.5" lengths. (you'll need 8 of them for 4 presents)
- Screw or nail wood together to form a rectangle frame. Your long 2x2s will be the top and the shorter ones will be the sides. Your finished frame will be 14" x 11.5"
- Wrap the frame with the wrapping paper of your choice.
- Lay ribbon across the present and staple or glue it to the back.
- Form a bow and staple it to the ribbon (or use a pipe cleaner to attach it)
- Add in greenery to give some holiday feel and add colour contrast.
- Place your "present" into the bookcase.
Notes
Store these carefully and they'll last for years.
Use whatever kind of paper you want. Vintage wrapping paper would be GREAT.
If you're going to screw the frames together remember to pre-drill the wood so it doesn't split.
Matte paper is better than shiny because shiny shows all the wrinkles, marks etc.
Great job Karen, looks fantastic
Ooooooh! Your dining room looks gorgeous now! I keep going back to the photo to get that jolt of pleasure. What a success your bookcases are!
The fake gifts are neat, but I'm not sure I'd trust a guy who'd come up with that. ;-) OTOH, he certainly sounds creative! We want to know more!
Wow! The black presents are stunning. What a great idea. I love the black theme for Xmas.
I arrange the tree trimmings onto my mantle and never water them. Just lay a sheet under the mantle after Christmas and swoop them all down onto the sheet and drag them outside. I also put a huge pot of them in the bathroom with no water. I just don't touch the branches until clean up day. Your black presents are really striking but I can't get over how gorgeous the tall wide white stripes look on your shelving. Keep going back for the fun affect of seeing the unexpected wide white stripes. Clean, different, and just beautiful (especially set off well with black presents. I imagine the effect is even better in real life being they are satin and velvet - LOVE the texture. Totally worth your hard work and time which is very easy for me to say.
I did use fake presents one year under my tree since there wasn't a lot of presents - the kids were older but I still wanted to fill it up. So I wrapped up empty cardboard boxes which looked wonderful and even better when I set out my trash LOL. They disappeared before the garbage men came.
.....love it, and yes about the coach?
I sure wouldn't bother with the little water vials. Just keep cutting fresh greens every few days until the holidays are over
Beautiful, classy and I love the fake presents in the bookcase. So you or it would have been you if the coach hadn't thought of it first.
I like the look. Think I might cut thick chunks of styrofoam to fit the shelves and wrap those. Avoid that whole twisting and needing a leg thing.
And they won't make such a clatter if they fall off the bookcase. Brilliant!
nor will they put divots in the floor!
Oh have to say fake presents great idea ;). I use to mess with my kids an husband when I was younger, I always put out fake presents . With notes inside telling them that Santa knows an is watching. Due to the fact they they always were so snoopy, real ones were keep at a friends that had no kids. The real ones were wrapped identically so they were never sure as sometimes I would just change the name tag. They called me mean , I just wanted them to be surprised at Christmas.
Love your story! My daughter saw all her presents one year and then pretended to be surprised on Christmas morning. About a week later she said it was the worst Christmas ever. (I used to tell my kids to not go in my closet because their presents were inside.) After my daughter looked, it never happened again. She was my best salesman on not peeking. I thought I was teaching them patience but your idea is even better - teaching them Mom always knows what they are up to. Love it.
I took a rather "meaner" approach when my eldest son snooped on his birthday presents when he was a kid. He got them on his birthday, but I did not wrap them. Lesson learned.
Mary, my two daughters confessed to me several years later that they had snooped too, and that that Christmas had been the worst ever. Clearly it doesn't pay to snoop!
Wow! I had to do a double take, no wait, a triple take....those bookcases are gorgeous and awesome and not sure how you pulled it off, but, W.O.W.
LOVE the 'present on the bookshelf' idea, what a completely ingenious idea, and you rocked it with the black color scheme. So stealing that idea!
Seriously though, the shelves look custom and you did a great job, you should be proud.
Sheeez...Don't you know that b-ball coaches make the BEST decorators...clearly the man is a genius...my coach/decorator is awesome...I just love the hoop hanging from the center of my bookcase...and I find tossing the ball in the basket from the comfort of my sofa is sooo relaxing...Also..it seriously looks great Karen! lol
and once again you've gotten yourself in a mess by mentioning a man friend...didn't I warn you the last time??...by this time tomorrow people will be wanting to know when the wedding is...God help you girlfriend...
I've been wondering since she went surfing withOUT her mother. So, with whom did she go? Hmmmm?
Oooh. Nice catch, CJ! Yeah. So what about this coach?
hey! yeah! fess up Karen!!!
What a great idea! Love the black!
Love it! It looks beautiful!
So about this coach. Is no one going to ask about the coach?
Yeah, is the coach single? Or... otherwise?
Does he make housecalls?
Meantime, OCD years. CDO is more like it. (CDO=OCD with the letters in the correct order. Get with the program!)
I find myself wondering if you have any evergreens left in your yard or if you swipe all the greenery from your neighbors bushes, making you the pariah at caroling parties?
the bookcases look amazing! good job. the black "boxes" fill the spaces nicely, and the greenery adds just the right touch of Christmas.
Meanwhile (as we're all aware, I just moved here a couple of months ago, I'm old and that's my excuse for unpacking at a snail's pace) I have a jet black bookcase with a few empty spots...and I can't wait to wrap up some "gifts" to fill with! I'm leaning toward yellow...maybe with green bows!
Now I am going to have to put in bookshelves, so I can have the faux boxes! I love them!
Just what I was thinking!
Really, Karen -- " Oral Surgery" by Mead??!!!!?
I was wondering the same thing! I think we're getting a dental related post next year!!
yeah, me too.
Ladies, ladies! Obviously, you have collectively not been keeping up with the rest of us or your "taods" homework. This issue was dealt with a couple of posts or weeks or whatever ago. Karen has dental stuff in her ancestral blood and inherited said tome legitimately. Apparently.
Beautiful! Slick trick and clever to boot. Those little vials are just for the 30 minutes of pretty orchid for a corsage for Mother's Day church goin'. Just sayin'.' Pretty worthless for anything such as this. My fresh wreath came with instructions to spritz it with water every day, and I can do that. Soak it in the bathtub in water for overnight before putting up to display - I can do that. Soak it weekly in tub to keep it fresh. Not happening. Take it down from the door and shed needles through the house to the tub and clean the needles out of the tub next morning and drip water again all through the house and then re-wire it back to the security screen. Nope. It will just have to get crispy. It will match your sprigs just fine!