Fabric Covered Magazine Holders

Recently, I found these great magazine holders at Target in the Dollar Spot section – for only a $1 – and put a couple of them in my cart because of course you can always use these types of things. Especially at that price.

And as I home decor and DIY blogger I just couldn’t use them as plain cardboard boxes.

They are perfect for an easy DIY project to make my desk look organized and pretty.

Fabric is the best way to cover and update the plain boxes and so easy to do too.

Using fabric I already had on hand and that I had used in the past for fabric covered notebooks. Now my notebooks and file folders would match at my desk anyway.

The first thing I needed to do was make a template to cut out the fabric. Using parchment paper I had in my kitchen supplies, I laid out a long piece and traced the outline of the magazine holder with a pencil on to the parchment paper.

First I traced the outline of the box on it's side, flipped it to the back section, traced that, and then flipped it to the other side to trace to create full size template of the outside of the magazine holder box.

For around the basic outline of the box, I measured out two inches around the outline for extra width on the fabric.

This is what the final template looks like.

Then I cut out the template to use as a pattern for the fabric cutout.

Pinning the pattern down with large straight pins, I then cut out the fabric for the cover of the magazine file box.

I used Mod Podge for this project instead of glue because it is so easy to work with.

Covering one side of the magazine holder with Mod Podge, I attached the fabric to the holder, applied Mod Podge to the next section and repeated the process all around the outside of the holder until it was covered.

Turn the box on the fabric while applying the Mod Podge to cover it tightly.

Wrap the bottom of the magazine holder like a present in four easy steps.

1. Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the bottom of the box.

2 - Found in the two smaller edges of fabric.

3 - Apply another coat of Mod Podge over the top of the folded fabric edges and along the inside of the box again.

4 - Fold over the longer sections of fabric over the top of the smaller pieces covered in Mod Podge. Apply a coat of Mod Podge over the entire folded fabric surface to secure in place.

Again, allow the Mod Podge to dry for at least 30 minutes.

To finish off the magazine holders, I cut small slits in the fabric overlapping the top of the boxes.

Apply more Mod Podge to the inside of the magazine box and fold over the small cut sections of fabric over the edge.

The last thing you could do is cut out cardstock to cover the inside of the boxes, but the color of the inside of these boxes didn’t bother me that much since no one was going to see them except me.

However, I did decide to put a layer of white Duck tape over the edges of the fabric inside the box to just to keep the fabric from pulling lose each time I pulled a folder in and out of the box.

You can make the inside more decorative but for me these boxes needed to be more functional than decorative for my desk.

Since I am using these magazine holders for folders instead of magazines, I am using them sideways instead of upright on my desk.

Now my desk looks a teeny bit more organized with the matching fabric covered notebooks on the top shelf.