DIY Thread Holder

I mentioned before that I got an embroidery machine for Christmas.  Well, that meant I needed to find some way to store all the thread, some sort of thread holder.  When I opened the box of colorful thread I knew it was too pretty to hide away somewhere.  So, I started brainstorming ideas for how to display it without it looking too crafty.  I thought all the beautiful colors could actually serve as artwork if displayed in the right way.  

Later that day, I was making my rounds at Goodwill and I found this rack.  I'm not sure what it was originally, sort of looks like a really narrow towel rack?  Anyways, I had a feeling it would be perfect and may even work with these dowel rods and blocks I got from Hobby Lobby.  And the best part?  It was $2.99.  

I got home and started gluing the dowels with the blocks into place to hold the thread and realized it just wasn't going to work.  The holes weren't drilled straight and the dowels were crooked so it looked really wonky. 

So, onto plan B.  I decided I probably wouldn't really need the dowels to hold everything in place so I just took them off.  Then, I gave it a coat of gold spraypaint to make it look more glam and less industrial.

I have 40 spools of thread and they just so happened to all fit perfectly, it's a miracle.  They are just resting there now but the ledge is almost as wide as the spools and I don't plan on slamming any doors or anything so they shouldn't fall off, fingers crossed.  If they do start falling off I'll probably just buy some thicker dowel rods, cut them to size, and super glue them into place.   

I love that I can see them all now and know exactly which colors I have.  It also adds a nice punch of color.

If you want to make something similar and don't come across one of these at Goodwill, the same look could be accomplished with some 1 x 2's from Lowe's.  Just cut them to size and screw them in place.  You could actually customize it that way to make it as large or small as you want.  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Edited to add:

Thank you to Tracey who commented to let me know that this is actually a CD rack from Ikea.  So, if you'd like to recreate this thread holder, then hop on over to IKEA and pick one up for $7.99.  It's the Lerberg CD/DVD wall shelf.

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