DIY Magazine Boxes

When I showed you that poor, inglorious, miserable bookcase that I rescued from being sent to the landfill I am sure you also noticed the magazine boxes that coordinated with the bookcase. Well, there is no rocket sciences behind these.

These are the boxes. Just some really cheap, crummy Ikea magazine boxes I already had. Unfortunately these are probably some of the biggest design failures ever coming out of an Ikea designer’s drawing table (nobody uses drawing tables anymore, I am sure, but bear with me in the interest of not making me feel like I just stepped out of a time machine).

The magazines were worse-built than a cereal box, and they are supposed to hold something heavier. What were they thinking?

I stapled two holders together and liberally applied glue and packing tape to give it more structural support. I also glued and taped another piece of cardboard to the bottom to make them stronger. I then covered the fronts with fabric and gave it a coat of Hardcoat Mod Podge.

I then made them some handles with raffia (I wanted rope, but don’t have any). They are held with a knot tied on the inside of the box. They come pretty handy to pull the boxes out.

The boxes really finish the little bookcase, and keep my magazines pretty organized in a way that would have been impossible without the holders.

The magazine holders and the bookcase share similar stories, and they all ended exceeding my expectations after some liberal application of elbow grease. They are the perfect spot to keep my design and decor literature.

If, unlike me, you haven’t squandered your money on those Ikea holders, and if you buy cereal for breakfast, you can go with this idea I saw a couple of months back at the local Eco-Fair.

Aunt Clara