File it with style: DIY file and photo holders

29 Oct 2025

These fun and practical holders are a great way to organise your home and office. The smaller holders can display your favourite photos or birthday cards, and the larger holder can help organise all of the files in your home office. All you need to do is choose your favourite Resene paint and stain colours to make them your own. These will also be great heading into December when all those Christmas cards start arriving in the mail!

You will need:

• Untreated pine wood, 65mm wide x 42mm thick x 900mm long
  
  
• Table saw
  
  
• Sandpaper
  
  
• Paintbrush
  
  
• Resene Quick Dry
  
  
• Resene Colorwood in your chosen shade. Fleur used Resene Teak
  
  
• Resene testpots in colours of your choice. Fleur used Resene Teal Blue, Resene Blue Chill and Resene Citron
  
  
• Resene Aquaclear satin

Step 1: For the file holder, cut a length of the pine wood to 200mm long. Using a table saw, set the blade low and then run the board over the blade so that it leaves a groove across the board. Do multiple passes over the blade to make some grooves wider, and change the angle of the board to get groves at different angles.

For single photo and card holders, use the table saw to rip the pine wood down so that the finished dimensions are 42mm x 42mm square. Again, set the blade low, and then cut a groove along the length down the middle of the wood. Next, cut the wood at 45 degrees to make triangles, with the cut groove facing up to the point of the triangle.

Step 2: Paint the two sloped faces of the triangles with Resene Quick Dry, and once this is dry, paint one face with two coats of your chosen colour. Fleur used Resene Teal Blue on one and Resene Blue Chill on the other. 

For the file holder, use a small paintbrush to prime inside the grooves with Resene Quick Dry, and then apply two coats of your chosen colour. Fleur used Resene Citron. Give the holders a sand to get rid of any paint that got on the remaining surfaces so that you have a nice crisp line between the paint and wood. Wipe away any dust.

Step 3: Stain the remaining paint-free surfaces with a Resene Colorwood stain in your choice of colour. Fleur used Resene Teak with just one coat, but you can do multiple coats if you want a darker finish.

Step 4: Finish by applying two coats of Resene Aquaclear in a satin finish over both the stained and painted surfaces.

Wall painted in Resene Cararra, sideboard in Resene Colorwood Teak.

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 29 Oct 2025