Choosing the Right Paper for Your Homemade Planner: No More Mistakes!

Kim | Build Your Planner
3 min readSep 19, 2023

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[This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small amount from your purchase]

When choosing the right paper for your homemade planner, it is so easy to make mistakes. I know because I have made them. So I’m here to help with a guide on what is the right paper to use for your planner success.

Choosing the right paper for your homemade planner — Introduction

Don’t worry, you are not alone!

I also have done the searching — best planner for diy planner.

Why does it matter?

It is important to get the right paper, because if you don’t you will find out the hard way that not all paper is suitable for your homemade planners.

You might end up buying bundles or packs of paper that then become useless. We don’t want that and neither does our planet.

The good news!

The good news is that it is still worth putting in the effort to get the right paper, because printable and homemade planners are going to be the best option to get a completely customizable planner at a budget friendly price point.

In this post we are going to go over all the points you need to choosing the right paper. We will look at the options for diy planner paper for beginners so that you don’t have to make any expensive mistakes.

Understanding YOUR planner’s needs

This is a really important first step.

The reason being — the different needs and functions of different planners will require different paper needs.

This is why it is so important to tap into your planner’s needs and know exactly what you hope to accomplish with your planner.

For example, I will tell you one of my first mistakes. I bought alcohol based markers to decorate my planner, because there seemed to be a bigger selection of neutral colors in the alcohol markers. Then I quickly found out that using these on normal paper means they bleed right through to the other side. Then I was left with trying different paper or different markers.

Over time I tried both. But ultimately it took me trial and error to find the right things for my planner, this is why I am writing about this topic today.

Let’s dive into the different options for you:

Types of paper for DIY planners

Regular printer paper bought at your local office shop.

Pros — This is by far the cheapest option

Cons — It is very thin paper and most mediums like markers and paints will bleed through to the other side of the page.

Bond paper or Recycled paper

Pros — you can get really nice smooth recycled paper these days that will create a lovely professional finish to your planner pages

Cons — Printers will need the settings changed to manage this paper and the ink might sometimes appear more faint if the settings are not right.

Speciality papers

Pros — Some beautiful speciality papers can be a beautiful backdrop to special artwork you want to include or can be helpful for special mediums such as fountain pens or alcohol markers.

Cons — These papers can get very expensive, but if they are worth it to you they may be worth it.

Please continue reading the article here.

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