Ahhh, seamless background paper. Such a wonderful tool for creating crisp, uniform environments when in use. Such an awkward, space-devouring, nightmare when not in use. Do you find yourself constantly toppling over rolls of paper in your studio? Then tripping over them like a cartoon character? I used to be like you. Then I did something about it. I saved my coffee money for a couple of days, went to a hardware store for supplies, and built myself a rack to corral my rowdy rolls of paper. It was easy. Trust me, if I was able to do this in an afternoon, so can you.
The dimensions for your rack will vary depending on how many backgrounds you need to store. Mine works with six rolls of paper, but you can add or subtract, depending on your needs. Similarly, I modeled the space inside each divider to correspond roughly to the space inside of the cardboard boxes in which seamless is shipped. Choose dimensions that work for you and make the necessary adjustments—or copy mine if it is all you need.
I’m a far cry from a carpenter, but a job like this does not require advanced woodworking skills. Screws secured each divider into the base of the unit. Its door is attached via a simple hinge and latch and the whole thing mounts on the wall using small steel brackets. I used a handsaw to cut my dividers, leading to slight inconsistencies that sanding was able to help. Finally, I used an old trick I’ve learned from every landlord I’ve ever had and added some paint to make any inconsistencies less apparent. Voila! A rack for your backgrounds.
If you don’t feel like getting your hands dirty, Savage makes a polyurethane paper roll storage rack that you can use. Do you have a solution for managing your backgrounds? Have a better design than mine? Share them in the Comments section, below!
