Make this DIY knife holder to sit on your kitchen cabinets. This knife block is a great knife storage idea because it is a universal knife block (meaning, any knives will work)!

But stick around, even if you don't want to make your own knife holders, because I'm sharing some great ideas for drawer storage for knives, magnetic knife holders, and more!

I've been blogging for a long time now, doing projects and making things. It's always such a good feeling to realize that a project that I did closer to the beginning of this home decor journey is one that I still have and love.

I made this kitchen knife stand back in 2015 for a challenge with a group of gals. We had to take something we were inspired by at a specific store and make it our own. I'll link everyone else's projects at the end of this post, so you can check them out if you'd like. Anyways, for this specific challenge, the goal was to take something that inspired each of us from Anthropologie.

I really love Anthropologie but don't often actually buy anything from there. The prices are a tad high, in my opinion, for the quality. That being said, I was excited to check out their catalog and find some inspiration. I saw that they had a knife block (see below because they no longer have it) and I just loved it.

Since we didn't have a knife rack, magnetic knife holder or any drawer knife storage, I knew that making something similar would solve a big problem for us at our house.

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I hate to admit it, but we had been just throwing our knives in a drawer to the left of the sink. The bad thing about that, is that we have a few decent knives (Shun slicing knife and Shun All-purpose knife) and weren't taking care of them at all.

Anyways, the knife block set at Anthropologie ranged from $50-70 depending on the size. With those as inspiration, I decided to go for it and try my hand at making one myself. It turned out great, so I'm sharing the DIY kitchen knife holder with you so you can make one. Or, stick around to the end and you can shop some other knife organizer ideas that might work for your home.

How to make a DIY knife holder

This do it yourself knife holder was sized based on the longest knife size that I had. Feel free to customize your knife storage in size but I do think that the size that I made the knife stand would fit almost any sized knife!

DIY knife organizer supplies

• (8) ⅜" x 4" x 36" Craft Wood Boards (found on the lumber aisle)
• Stainable Wood Glue
• Stainable Wood Filler
• Stain
• Rag
• Bamboo Skewers
• Clear Polycrylic in Matte

Tools needed to make your own knife block

• Miter Saw (or any other saw that you have)
• Wood Bar Clamps (or make your own pipe clamps!)
• Nail gun (or Stapler with brads)
• Air Compressor (if needed by nail gun)
• Orbital Sander (or sanding pads)

How to Make a Knife Holder

1. Decide on the size of the knife block (mine came out to be 12" x 12" x 4").
2. Cut boards at 12". This will give you 8 pieces total.
3. Wood glue and clamp three pieces together (we're glueing three long pieces together to make one larger sheet).
4. Repeat with another three pieces so that you have (2) sheets of three pieces glued together.
5. Let dry.
6. Attach one 12" x 4" board (the bottom piece) to an end 12" x 4" board using a brad gun and wood glue.
7. Attach 1 of the glued 3-piece boards to the bottom and to the end board.
8. Repeat until you have attached all pieces.
9. Sand with an orbital sander.
10. Use wood filler in all the brad holes.
11. Let dry and lightly sand.
12. Stain.
13. Let Dry.
14. Seal.
15. Fill with Bamboo Skewers.

I know visual cue's can be good, so I want to show you a few in-process steps to get you started on this knife organizer!

Measuring and cutting the boards to length is the first part of this project. I cut the boards on a miter saw but you could use any type of saw that you had.

The next step is to glue your three boards for each side together.

From there, you can attach the bottom board and one side board to one of your sets of three glued together sides.

Keep attaching your boards until you have the form of a knife block.

Sand the whole knife block until smooth.

*If you are more exact with your cuts, you'll have less to sand but as this was one of my beginner woodworking projects, I was just learning how to measure and cut using my tools.

Stain and seal the kitchen knife holder and then fill with bamboo skewers.

I wondered how well the knives would stick in place and they haven't budged. It's really perfect for them. The key is to put enough bamboo skewers in the knife block so that the knives slide in but don't fall down.

As I mentioned earlier, this was a project I did years ago and it's still one that I have and use. I love it!

You might wonder how dirty this will get and then what to do about that. So, let's talk about that.

How do you clean knife holders?

Cleaning the knife holder is super simple. Wipe down the wood on the outside. For the bamboo skewers, take them out and wipe them down. Once you've taken the wood skewers out of the block, gently wipe the inside of the block down.

I've had this knife block for over five years now, and it's still going strong. I wipe it down every so often, but it doesn't get dirty easily so that's been great.

I do want to share a few options for if you want to buy something for knife storage instead of making my knife holder. I think any of these three items would work well depending on your storage and kitchen needs.

Overall, I'm still so thrilled with this project. If you try it, let me know. I'd love to see.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few other projects in this series that you can check out.

Stop by: Upcycled Treasures, The Gathered Home, Designer Trapped in a Lawyer's Body, Brave New Home and Delineate Your Dwelling to see more!