Make these minimal rattan DIY pen holders

Rattan is so on trend at the moment and I’ve been wanting to make something with this beautiful material for ages. I’ve actually tried a few times before but nothing quite turned out how I wanted it to ?. This time thought was different and I succeeded – yay! Have you created with rattan?

Work-wise, things get really hectic at this time of year so I decided to use my rattan to make a new desk accessory as I’ll be spending a lot of time at my desk. I also wanted to slip in one more general DIY before I start sharing all the Christmas ideas and DIY’s. So I made these rattan diy pen holders which I’m really pleased with. They’re handy little holders to store all sorts of stuff but I’m loving them on my desk. And as Xmas is coming, I’m thinking they’ll make cute little handmade gifts too…

These diy pen holders are easy to make and they look so pretty on a desk as well. I love the natural wood look of rattan so ended up keeping these diy desk accessories natural but I had thought about spraying them black. I think they would look pretty cool as black pen pots too. Maybe when I tire of this look, I’ll spray mine.

DIY pen holders in rattan

Materials:
Rattan cane webbing (US readers find it here)
thick oak wood disc* approx 75mm/3inch diameter (US readers find similar here)
wood glue (clear drying)
clothes pin
2 rubber bands (one cut)

*It’s not essential to go for oak, you can go for pine or plywood but just make sure they are fairly thick otherwise you will have trouble sticking the rattan.

1. Cut your rattan to size. I went for a couple of different heights – approx 9 & 10 cms (3.5 & 4 inches) and my wood rounds were 7.6 cms (3 inches) so I cut the rattan to a little larger than this for overlap to glue. I had about an extra 1.5 cm for overlap.

2. Next, lightly spray your piece of cut rattan with water. This helps the rattan bend more easily – just make sure not to use too much water – just a few sprays.

3. Now glue the rattan to the wood disc. It’s easiest to do this bit by bit, pressing/holding the rattan in place as you go along.

4. As soon as you finish gluing the rattan to the disc, take your cut rubber band and tie it as tightly as you can around the rattan and disc to make sure it sticks together. Before you do this, it can feel like the rattan isn’t sticking to the wooden disc but it will stick. Just make sure to hold it firmly in place until you tie the rubber band around it.

5. Then glue the overlap and immediately place the clothes peg to hold it together. Take the other rubber band and loop it around once or twice (depending on how large it is) to help keep it all in place. This shouldn’t be too tight as it can warp the shape of the pen holder. Leave to dry for at least 24 hours.

Here’s a short video showing how I made these diy pen holders (don’t miss the video bomber!)

I went for 2 slightly different sized heights for these pen pots but if you have wooden discs in different sizes you can go for very small to very large sizes, making a whole range of rattan diy desk accessories.