Gridfinity Terraced Holder for 25 mm Dropper Bottles

This is inspired by two laser cut MDF paint holders that I had. Unfortunately the original design did not meet the Gridfinity Specification, and the two terraced paint holders could not stack nicely with each other. This meant they took up a lot of space when not in use, and didn't sit nicely after I covered every horizontal surface of my home with Gridfinity baseplate.

It is designed specifically for Army Painter 25 mm miniature paint dropper bottles. But Vellejo and Reaper bottles are very similar and could also fit. If they don't, then please let me know. Given some dimensions I am happy to adjust the cut outs, particularly on the stacker part.

The main idea, was that I want my paints to sit in terraced display when in use, and then pack down into a tighter configuration for storage. Using the Gridfinity specification defined the modularity that allowed both of these things to be possible.

Organisation

The design is split into strips that are 1 Gridfinity Y units deep and N Gridfinity X units wide.

I've provided a number of pre-exported N widths to suite what I expect most users will want, specifically; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 units wide.

To increase the density of paint bottles in the holder, there is a row for paint bottles that overhangs the typical Gridfinity XY unit boundary. These bottles are held in place by little arms on the front of the “back” and "mid" parts, and slot into a cut out on the “front” and “mid” parts. These bottles also sit on a lower floor height than the other bottles, creating a terrace of bottles. This terrace has 2 Gridfinity Z units difference between them. This means that the terrace effect can be extended, by propping additional holder parts up on bins that are 4 Gridfinity Z units.

To make a layer…

• Print 1x “gridfinity-paint-holder-front” part at your chosen width

• Print 1x “gridfinity-paint-holder-back" part at your chosen width

• Print extra “gridfinity-paint-holder-mid" parts at your chosen width
  I usually stop at 3 bins for a total depth of 5 Gridfinity Y units.
  The bins required to make the full terrace starts to become excessive.
  That said, if you make a truly insane terrace then please post a “make” I would love to see the full extent of the insanity might inspire.

• Print “gridfinity-bin” parts to allow you to make a terrace
  The number of bins, increases quickly with the depth of the terrace.
  1 bin for depth 2, 3 bins for depth 3, 6 bins for depth 6, 10 bins for depth 5, etc.

Stackers

I've included “stacker” parts which act as spacers above a set of bottles, so that more Gridfinity “stuff” can stack on top of your paints, when you don't need to be accessing them. This also allows me to neatly pack away multiple layers of “gridfinity-paint-holders”.

If you want to make another set…

• Print “gridfinity-paint-holder-stacker” parts at your chosen width
  Enough to cover your total depth of holders.

• Follow the instructions above to print parts for another layer

Note: The “gridfinity-paint-holder-stacker” parts are 2x the height of the bins. So a stacker can replace 2 bins when making the terrace.

Trays

When you've got a block of paint holders that is made out of strip units, it can be a pain to pick them up all at once.

To solve this issue I included some 1 Gridfinity Z unit trays, which I usually put under the “gridfinity-paint-holder” parts when they are stacked flat.

Example

My images show my prototypes. For which I printed 2 layers of paint holders, at 5 unit width, and 5 unit depth.

• First layer of paint holders
  1x front, 1x back and 3x mid parts.

• Stacker layer
  5x stacker parts.

• Assorted bin layers
  For terrace building and brush storage

• 1x Tray

• Second layer of paint holders
  1x front, 1x back and 3x mid parts.

FreeCAD Files

I've included my FreeCAD files if anyone wants to generate their own sizes.

I use the “DynamicData” workbench to parametrize my designs. Parameters are in the “Details/dd” object. Hopefully the parameters are well enough named for those that dig into editing these.

I've included an assembly as well, I use the “Assembly 4” workbench to assist with assembly part placement.

History

• 2025-12-06 - Initial release

• 2025-12-29 - Fixed linear pattern of Gridfinity base on “gridfinity-paint-holder-stacker” parts
  Note: All except 2x1x8 version had linear pattern not repeating in X axis