It is time for spring cleaning, and I am here to help you with 50+ awesome DIY storage ideas. You can get organized on a budget with this week’s collection. As always, if we missed your awesome DIY storage tutorial, send us the link or comment after this post. Enjoy!
Repurposed Toy Car Box to Sewing Notions Storage
Hello! I’m Steph and I blog at The Silly Pearl. I’m mom to 7 year old twin girls and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.I love to repurpose containers into storage for my craft room. So I’m excited to show you what I made today here on Saved By Love Creations: I took a plastic toy car storage box (don’t worry, it’s not vintage!) and created a storage box for my collection of vintage trims that I’m always collecting from the thrift store. Thanks so much Johnnie for having me on your blog today to share my tutorial!
My girls do have a collection of cars themselves, but most are larger and wouldn’t fit into the compartments of the box. So I thought I could use it for myself in the craft room, to house all the little lengths of rick rack, seam binding, lace, and bias tape currently tangled in a box.
First step is to remove the label on the front and spray paint the entire box, inside and out. Choose a spray paint that bonds to plastic. Use a primer as well. Do several thin coats, allowing time to dry in between. Be sure to follow the drying time recommendations on the spray cans, particularly in between the primer and the color. I chose a turquoise color that I have a lot in my craft room.
Once the paint is dry and you’ve allowed it to cure, you can start applying the scrapbook paper. An 8×12 inch piece of scrapbook paper fit perfectly on the front (I used my Xyron 9-inch Creative Station to apply adhesive to my scrapbook paper). Then I framed the paper with some red rick rack using my Xyron 1.5-inch sticker maker.
Inside the lid, I created a pocket by folding an 8×12 inch piece of paper in half. I applied adhesive to just one of the folded sides and pressed that to the bottom half of the lid so that the other half of the paper unfolds out towards the bottom. Then I applied adhesive to another 8×12 inch piece of paper and pressed it to the inside of the first piece.
Then I applied some double-stick tape to the edges of that unfolded half and pressed down the edges over that 2nd piece of paper. To allow some give for the pocket, I adhered the pocket at a slight angle on both sides.
I grabbed some clothespins and wooden spools and wrapped my trims around them. For narrower trims, I used the wood spools, securing the ends with a little bit of washi tape. For wider trims, or for trims where I had a longer length, I used clothespins. Just make sure the clothespins and wood spools you use aren’t too wide or tall for the compartments. I was able to stack two of these one-inch spools into one compartment.
On the outside, I used a piece of cardboard that one of my trims came in, and with some letter stamps and more trims (of course), I created a label and adhered it to the front. All done!
Inside, I stored some vintage trims that are still in their packaging. Plus, I added some trim along the edges of the pocket papers.
Before and After!
Hope you’ll come on by my blog for more craft tutorials and check out my craft room ideas as well. Also, find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you again Johnnie for having me here on your blog today! –Steph @ The Silly Pearl
How to Make Your Craft Storage Beautiful
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Hello there, SBLC readers! This month I have a fun and really quick project for you. I just finished repainting an old desk that took me nearly a week. While I love how it turned out, I was ready to create something cute that only takes a few minutes.
I found these cardboard tubs at Target in their Dollar Spot. That place is dangerous! I snagged two, resisting the temptation to buy them all. I thought they’d be the perfect size to corral my paintbrushes, pencils and pens that are always everywhere but where I need them to be when I want them.
I had these pretty aqua and turquoise spray paints on hand and gave the tubs a couple of quick coats. The Krylon is Ocean Breeze and the Rust-oleum is Satin Lagoon, if you’re a turquoise-lover like I am.
I picked these houndstooth sticky letters up at TJ Maxx a while back, without any idea what I’d use them for. Perfect for labeling some craft tubs.
To get them to line them up straight, place the bottoms of the letters on one edge of a ruler, or any straight edge.
Gently press the tops of the letters onto the tub, give the ruler a little twist, and the letters will pop right off, staying in perfect alignment.
Only one problem though . . . with the letters too close together, the houndstooth pattern made it hard to read the word. So I just popped them off, lined them up on the ruler again, farther apart this time, and pressed them back down. Much better.
Some other goodies I found in my craft stash were these rolls of washi tape.
Have you used washi tape yet? Oh wow, is it fun! It dresses nearly anything up in a snap!
My first attempt was a little too . . . busy, what with the houndstooth already. But you can play around with the letters and washi tape for quite a while without losing too much adhesive and eventually you’ll find a design that works just for you.
I wound up layering two tapes, first a plain turquoise and then the polka dots on top of that. So there’s color and just a little extra pattern, without making your eyes go too buggy.
Then I loaded them up. The turquoise tub says “Draw” on one side and “Create” on the other and holds my pencils, gel pens, and pigma markers.
The aqua tub says “Paint” and “Inspire” and holds some of my paintbrushes. The brushes I use the most often. Yes, I have quite a collection having painted for nearly 20 years. I actually have more markers too but I don’t use them as often so they’re tucked away on a shelf.
Of course, if Target still has some of these tubs, the markers might just wind up on my worktable with the rest of the group.
Yeah, I have a huge worktable. It’s actually a door, set on top of two bookshelves, so it measures 30″ wide by 80″ long.
And that’s why I need these craft tubs . . . because my worktable never really looks like this pic above.
No, this is more like it, with four or five projects going at once.
So if I’m doing some sketching, I grab my tub of pencils and pens and have everything I need. I usually have two to three paint projects in progress so it’s really helpful to grab all of my brushes at once, wherever I’m working in the studio.
I also love the subliminal reminders. I love to draw and paint and I create to inspire others to do the same.
Of course, if you don’t have little tubs like these, you could decorate a shoebox or any other box with a little spray paint, some stick-on letters and washi tape in a matter of minutes. And choose some words that have a special meaning just for you! It’s a great project when you need to get those creative juices flowing but you don’t have a ton of time.
When you do have a little more time, stop by Just Paint It and say hi. I’m getting ready to do some PIY Spring Flowers. (PIY = Paint It Yourself) You can always find me on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram too.
Happy Crafting!
More SBLC Storage ideas:
Wanna see how to store your markers for next to nothing? Click the following image…
How about some free, stylish book storage? Click the image below…
And here is a quick and easy dollar store 3 tiered organizer DIY:
Finally, for some more fun ideas to use those pallets, check out my 50+ pallet project roundup;
I hope you got some good ideas here today. Thanks for reading!
xoxo,
DIY Storage Boxes from Recycled Pallets
Wanna make cool DIY storage boxes from old shipping pallets? That is what you will find here. This project came about because I have never really loved my tapered bookshelf and decided it was time to make it lovable. I found these DIY storage crates from pallets at Ana White, and came up with a plan to make small, medium and large ones to custom fit to my shelves. During the process of getting the numbers on there, I found a cool, accidental image transfer to wood technique. I finished the three boxes over 2 days, including letting stain sit overnight. Keep reading to see how.
SUPPLIES:
Wood from shipping pallets – (There are 1000 ways to break down pallets. I use a pry bar and circular saw. Google it to find videos.)
Kreg jig and screws (My wood was .75 inches thick so I used 1.25 inch Kreg screws)
1×12 board for bottoms of crates
Wood Glue
Clamps
Mod Podge (I used Antique Mod Podge)
Wood Stain and Conditioner or preferred finish
Scrapbooking Attitude or materials for your preferred transfer technique
TUTORIAL:
Based on my 3 shelf sizes, I decided to make three boxes sized as follows: 12×12.5 inch, 13×12.5 inch and 14×12.5 inch. To do this, I cut 6 sides from pallets, each 11 inches for the box sides. I cut a front and box in 12, 13 and 14 inches for each box. The bottom of the box I cut from 1×12 board to 1.5 inches shorter than the front/back pieces of each box (to account for the width of the sides). See all the pieces above.
Here you can see that I drilled pocket holes on each edge of the inner surface of the side boards for each box (to see how to use Kreg Jig and join wood with it, go to my Pallet Sign Tutorial)
Drill pocket holes in the bottom of the box for attaching it to the front, back and side box boards as pictured.
Start by attaching side to bottom using holes you drilled in bottom.
Here it is with all the boards attached. I used wood glue in addition to the screws. I always do. I learned that from Ana.
I sanded with 80 then 120 grit paper.
Clean away debris from sanding with damp lint free towel, then apply wood conditioner. Let sit 15 min, wipe away excess.
I stained with Minwax Classic Gray Wood Stain. I did an extremely quick and dirty finishing job on these since the wood is rustic and uneven anyway. That is one of the many things I love about pallet wood projects. I get to move quick and messy fits right in with the look.
I used these free cool vintage numbers from The Graphics Fairy. To get them filled in, I just pulled them into Photoshop and painted the open spaces black. I flipped them backwards and printed them onto Scrapbooking Attitude, an image transfer product you can read all about in my Image Transfer Halloween DIY using the product.
Cut out around number. Set aside and go to next step.
Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge where the image will be placed.
Peel film away from backing and place image, ink side down, onto the surface. Smooth out any wrinkles and press into Mod Podge/wood with fingers.
O.k. Here is where the happy accident starts. You can see the transfer film where you cut out the number and the clear “paper” around it. At this point I would just mod podge over everything, hoping that hid the edge of the film to an acceptable degree. What happened here was I realized I accidentally put the 2 on the largest box, where I really wanted the three. So, I tried to remove it, and the film came away leaving the ink behind! Yay! I did sanded it off the box so I could put the 3 on there, but removed the film for the rest of the numbers. I love how it looks!
Here you can see me removing the film, and the ink staying behind!
Brush a coat of Mod Podge over the entire surface, and the entire box to seal. I used Antique for an aged effect. Let dry and you are done!
So, they are awesome, am I right?
Wanna make everything under the sun from wood pallets?
Check out our 50+ Wood Pallet Project Round-up!
We also have 50+ Image Transfer Projects to inspire your creativity!
Make Aluminum Sheet Containers
Raise your hand if you could use more storage containers. I know I could. This decorative aluminum sheet container tutorial from Sugar and Cloth is one way to organize with style. You could even color the aluminum with alcohol inks or metal paint to coordinate with you color scheme. Head over for the simple, quick instructions and get started on your very own.