The Posh Space

Playroom Makeover Part 3- Box Refresh

by Angela On January 26, 2012

This week I was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers Jen Jones from I Heart Organizing and I decided to take on a project I had been putting off.  She recently had a post called Trash to Treasure showcasing how you can take something that was destined for the trash or donation and refresh it into a beautiful new creation.  Here’s what I did.

For Christmas my girls got a set of boxes from a friend of my Mom who no longer wanted them, so she passed on the cute pink and black boxes to my girls.  I had been searching and searching for a box that was sturdy enough but fit well in our IKEA Expedit shelf.  So I was thrilled when I put these boxes in and found that the largest box fit perfectly in my girls new bookcase.  Although the design on the boxes was cute, it wasn’t what I had envisioned for the room.  So it was to the drawing board to figure out what I could do with them.

I started by taping off the metal pulls and corners of the boxes.

Then I (well my husband) spray painted the boxes black while I gave my girls a bath.  I chose a black matte spray paint.  Learning along the way note:  after the boxes were painted we found that the black spray paint scratched easily, so if I did this again I would either look for a primer or lightly sand paper the boxes first.

Then I searched the web for zebra patterns.  I found two that I liked one at Clip Art Of and the other at Dreams Time.    I just printed the picture from the screen and eyeballed the pattern on to white adhesive vinyl.  I thought it might be easier to use a stencil I found a the craft store.  It wasn’t easier, but it still made a cute look.  If you aren’t good at drawing free hand you can always look for a stencil.  Or even better, if you have a Silhouette or Cricut machine it would probably make the process a TON faster.  But at the moment, I don’t have one.  Boo hoo!

Last but not least was to add the labels so my girls know where things go.  I used glittery pink stickers I found in the scrapbook department at my local craft store.

I was really happy with the result!  I’m not going to lie; this process took a long time.  Each box took about an hour.  But we loved the result!

The cost for this box refresh was about $17.00 for the can of spray paint, vinyl, stickers, and stencil.  Not too bad for four boxes!  As always, I hope this inspires you to get your own space organized!  Let me know how you are doing!