Designer Storage Made With Cardboard Boxes-Style B

I will be using two recycled wine cartons that I picked up for free at a local store, free is what I'm looking for! I removed any packaging tape or glossy labels from the boxes first so that the paint would adhere to all surfaces evenly.

I noticed that this season there's a lot of blush peach in home accents so I tried to create this with white semi-gloss paints and a mix of oranges and yellows I had to come up with the final shade. Do not cut the top flaps of the box off, simply fold them down inside to give the box extra stability and paint them too because they will be visible in the final look.

So as with the "previous" post I used thin, wooden strips that were scraps from cutting wood on our table saw. They were stained previously and set aside for a possible project such as this one. I was able to cut them with just utility scissors, you can choose how creative you want to go on the design.

Note if you don't have wood stain you can mix brown acrylic paint with water as a great substitute to darken your wood. Too, if you "don't" have access to this type of wooden strip a great SUBSTITUTE would be Washi tape! Always measure twice in order to cut just once, it was a learning curve for me to make these mitre cuts and fittings but I kept at it until I got them right.

So being happy with my design, I glued the wood onto the box with Titebond Glue but any wood glue would work. The strips were held in place with painters tape just until the glue dried. Washi tape...even easier...no glue would be needed! I didn't have washi tape to illustrate that look but I bet it could be amazing with all of the tape designs and colors that are available!

Sorry about color variation, I took this picture at night and we all know what artificial light does! So how about accents? Well I used recycled handles on the previous post and I was now fresh out...how about cheap dog collars? Cut off the buckle and use just the strap and I'm using more upholstery tacks that I had. This time I chose silver to match the collars silver studs.

The collars were cut with scissors in a width to just allow for a little bulge at the center, adhered with a little glue and the upholstery tacks. The center tacks were just a fun accent addition, the points are protruding through the cardboard just a little on the inside but I'm going to cut them with pliers or pad them and cover with some packaging tape.

On the practical side we are buying more in bulk these days in order to make less trips to the store so why not create some cheap, pretty storage for those extra items? Kids lunches or toys, dog treats or leashes, hats and gloves, toilet paperrrrr, craft supplies, puzzles, out of season items, keepsakes, etc.

Here are the two sets placed in my utility rack as a side by side comparison, I think these are a little addictive!

They ticked off all of my boxes...cheap, perfect fit for my utility rack, were easy to make, colorful, creative, stylish and very useful to hide my craft stashes!