86 Project Pretty: DIY Fabric Boxes & a Link Party!

Last week I got the itch.  Not a rash.  An itch to do something.  To DIY.  To project.  To organize.  To make something PRETTY!

And so I challenged myself along with you, to do some organizing and beautifying.  How did y'all do?

I am pretty gosh darn excited about the outcome of my project!

We have this fabulous piece of Craigslist furniture sitting in our playroom.  It's intention is to hold lots and lots of toys.

Nope, for this project I didn't paint it, but that is next on the list.  I actually tackled something that has been hiding behind those doors:

Yep, a pair of boxes.  Acting as toy and puzzle storage.  Aren't they purdy?

Not so much.

Here are some of the supplies  I used to spruce them up a bit:

1. Fabric
2. Craft Knife or Scissors
3. Spray Adhesive
4. Yard Stick
5. Cotton Cord
6. Grommets
7. Empty Boxes

I have a bit of a color scheme going in the playroom which is green and turquoise, so to cover the boxes I stuck with fabric in those colors.

{1 / 2}

I went with indoor/outdoor fabric for the outside of the box for durability and because of it's thickness {to better hide imperfections}.  I purchased 1 1/2 yards of each and had some leftover when the project was done.

The boxes I selected were equal size and 15" squares {a super sized bin!}.  I started by cutting the top four flaps off so I just had an open top box to play with.

I used the yard stick to measure A LOT and draw straight lines on the back side of the fabric for all of my cuts:

First, I cut a square piece a bit larger than the bottom and used my spray adhesive to attach it to the bottom of the box.

Then I cut two long strips of fabric to wrap along the inside.

Quick tip, it helps to roll the fabric and then unroll as you spray and affix:

So now the inside of my box was completely covered:

Then, I cut square pieces of fabric for two sides of the box.  Enough to wrap the top edge and the bottom edge:

For the corners on the inside, I just cut the fabric at a diagonal and wrapped it down:

So now the boxes looked like this:

Halfway there!

This time, I cut the fabric a little bit shorter so it would just slightly overlap the existing fabric that was wrapped around the corner.

The spray adhesive rocked for this project.  Everything was nice and easy to affix and it stuck really well.

Two fabric covered boxes later...

I really wanted the kids to have some handles on the front to not only dress up the bins even more, but to make it easy for them to pull them out when searching for their toys.

We started with grommets and a grommet setter:

Next step was to measure, cut holes in the box with the craft knife, pushed the grommet head through, set the grommet head face down on the grommet setter, place the grommet cap on the other side...

And set it!

Leaving us with two holes to feed the rope handle through:

I taped the ends of the cotton rope, to avoid fraying and to make it easy to feed through the grommets:

And just knotted them on the backside so they wouldn't fall through:

Oh my greatness how cute are these bins?!?

I really can't believe I made them myself.  So much more satisfying than running out to the store and spending $80+ dollars on something similar!  Wahoo!

We quickly filled them up!

And placed them in their new home!

Now for the fabulous before and after moment:

The handles make it easy for them to pull out the boxes bins and they store SO much since they are such a great size!

I think more challenges are in order!  It was uber motivating and SO much fun!

Now it's your turn!


And a button for you:

<a href="http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2012/03/pretty-pretty-diy-fabric-boxes-link.html" target="_blank"><img alt="IHeart Organizing" src="http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad14/iheartorganizing/Blog%20Images/ProjectPrettyLinkParty.png" /></a>

I can't wait to see what you creative folks did!  Anyone else try covering a box?  How did it go?