Dressin' It Up...

I have had several inquiries asking me where I found my storage containers for the cloffice. I found them at Ikea and Wal-Mart, but used spray paint to customize them. Today, I wanted to share a tutorial on how to customize your storage containers.


The first containers were from Wal-Mart, I found them in the office aisle on sale.


They were already white. To dress them I simply:

1. Measured the box height. Mine was 4.5"

2. Then decided out how many stripes I wanted. 3 went into 4.5" evenly, so I decided on 3.

3. Measured and marked increments every 1.5" all the way around the box.

4. Decided I wanted the box to be mainly yellow, so I taped off the center stripe (so it would remain white).

5. Spray painted the rest of the box yellow. (I taped the handles on the side of the box and laid it on its top so that inside would not be yellow.

The second set of containers my husband and I bought on a trip to Ikea. At the time we were in a hurry and bought black containers.

Kassett Magazine Box with Lid

Kassett Magazine File

The black wasn't working for me, so I taped off the silver touches on the boxes, primed them, and spray painted them a gloss white.

I then wanted to add more pattern and color to the space, so I decided to add a chevron pattern to the binding of the magazine files.

There are several ways to add chevron and a million tutorials on how to do it.

I will show you two.

The first way is the what I did it. I cheated :).

I created this chevron pattern in photoshop a while back, so I already had the pattern.


1. I measured the height and width of my magazine file binding.

2. Plugged the height and width into photoshop to create a new document the size I needed.

3. I then added the pattern to my document, making sure the pattern was centered.

4. Next, I printed the pattern onto contact paper. I had to do this twice since my binding was 13" and my paper was 11."

5. I cut out the pattern and evenly placed it on the magazine file.



6. Next, I covered the sides I did not want painted.

7. Finally, I spray painted the binding.

8. After it dried, simply peel off the contact paper.

Voila...

After I had finished my chevron boxes, I found this (which is one of many) incredibly easy to follow tutorial on how to create a chevron pattern on Makes Me Blush blog. This would be a very simple way to add chevron to your boxes.

When I started I was a little nervous on how the spray paint would hold up on cardboard boxes, but it worked like a charm. You would never know they have been spray painted.

When I started on the cloffice remodel, my original plan was to cover my boxes with fabric. I did try it, but was not happy with the results. The spray paint looks more professional, in my opinion. As I said earlier, you would never know they were spray painted.

I hope this tutorial helps make all of your boxes pretty ones.


Link parties I have linked to today.