Geometric Popsicle Stick Shelf

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure about this craft. I’m still not sold on how useful this shelf actually will be other than for decorative purposes, but I’m all about trying! This shelf can be done in any geometric pattern, and can be as deep as you’d like it to be, I used 9 rows of popsicle sticks at it’s deepest. I could potentially see storing a jar of buttons, a sweet little ribbon storage, or as I am using it for, a small decorative piece. After I made my hexagon shape, I searched Pinterest and noticed people are really crafty with these shelves! Someone even made it into the shape of a bunny, WOW!

You will need:

* Popsicle sticks—lots and lots of them, I personally used 51 for my shelf

* Hot glue

* Paint or Stain, I chose a stain because my craft room is wood paneled

* Template to make sure you don’t lose the shape you are after

Step One:

Create your template. My popsicle sticks are 4 1/2” in length. In order to create my template, I found a hexagon shape online, and sized it up until each of the sides were approximately 4 1/2” long. I then traced right off my laptop screen because I’m cheap and didn’t want to waste printer paper or ink. Hey no shame here in my judgement free zone, amiright?

Step Two:

Lay out the popsicle sticks on the template, overlapping where needed and begin gluing. You will likely only need the template for the first two rows, after that the shape should hold on its own to guide you accurately. This step is the time to decide how wide you want this to be.

Step Three:

Paint or stain your shelf. Make sure you get in between the open spaces so you don’t see any missed areas. A sponge brush is a good brush for this step, it wont streak and can squish small enough to get in the tight spaces. Allow enough time to dry completely. I left mine overnight.

The popsicle sticks are essentially untreated wood, the stain I used soaked in well. Having said that you probably don’t need two coats, but use your judgement on that.

Step Four:

Hang your shelf in the desired location and place small (i.e. lightweight) objects on it. Then sit back and enjoy, you just created a decorative shelf for the cost of a little paint, glue, and popsicle sticks. I bet you if you saw this little shelf at Pier 1 or Anthropologie you’d pay dearly for it. Nice job!

Final Verdict? The jury is still out on this one. It’s cute, don’t get me wrong...I’m just not sold on it’s functionality...yet.

Kid Friendly? Not so much. I’d leave this one to the adults only. This could be potentially cute hung up in a kids room though, to showcase some small toys or a lightweight picture frame.