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 flimsier 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, staples, 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
I gave up on the cardboard magazine holders due to continually falling over and actually invested in 5 plastic ones. Dumb, right? They fall over too but because you have to secure the folded plastic ones on the bottom and they’re very stiff, they fall apart as well. I finally got out my clear packing tape and taped the bottoms shut, then squished them between several heavy books on the bookcase to keep them from falling over. I never thought of covering them with pretty fabric – CLEVER!
Well, it didn’t occur to me for a long time either, so we’re kinda even. 🙂
Ok…where we you when I handed out all the dough for those stupid boxes that after I made em up (covered them in scrapbook paper 'cause they were ugly and THEN tried out the mags only to watch as they.fell.over…so.not.happy….lots.of.cursing… air.turned.blue…So…staples, extra cardboard, THEN scrapbook paper. I even tried to return them to IKEA but 'We're sorry ma'am if you hadn't decoupaged scrapbooking paper to them we could have accepted them as a return.' ….'I JUST assumed they'd work like you say they will as you SELL them!' IKEA! We have a love hate relationship….Honey …who is hoping she kept… Read more »
Yep, know the feeling. 😬
I love your idea for making magazine boxes. LOL, I bought a lot of the IKEA mag holders and these holders are even cheaper now for $1.99 pack of 5. I'm also thinking of grabbing a few boxes from Costco and decoupaging it.
love this idea! and the book shelf as well, I want to do both in my home
Well, get going getting the dough!I am dying to visit Australia, but that won't happen until Nadia is older. My husband has been there though (Sidney).
Love those rafia handles. Honestly, you must be the most organised person I know. If I had spare dosh I reckon I'd invest it in a return flight so you could come and sort out my mess. I can see three just looking around the living room. Hmmm… a job for the weekend perhaps?