Hiding life's unsightly truths

We have been trying to sell our home since our new addition has arrived. We have three bedrooms but still the house doesnt seem to have enough room to support all of us.  Before Ethan arrived we had "our bedroom," "my bedroom," and "Justin's bedroom." When I found out I was pregnant, we debated on who had to give up "their" room :)  My room was bigger, and I knew that little person was going to require a ton of stuff!  So we created the nursery in there. I was really happy with how it all turned out on the limited decorating budget.  We decided to go with beautiful conversion furniture that cost more up front but should last him until he leaves our nest.  His crib will convert into a full size bed and his dresser/changing table will become a storage place for all his goodies.  When we moved into this house, I began taking it one room at a time as far as decorating goes.  I was pretty happy with the kitchen, our room, bathrooms, and now nursery...but one bedroom remained. Our office was in shambles! It had collected all of the unsightly items thrown from the other rooms.  I would walk in there and think....ugh what do I do? 

We have limited furniture in the office. We have a desk that was given to us that I had painted.  We also have two black $15 bookcases that were starting to overflow with junk!  Yet, most of the junk we wanted to keep.  I have a bunch of art supplies that will come in handy for rainy days with a toddler, and Justin has all of his fishing equipment. The bookcases looked terrible so I decided to inexpensively give them a face lift. I have seen fabric organizational boxes at stores but you usually have to spend at least $10-$20 per box/basket.  I really didnt want to go out and drop $50-80 on baskets so I decided to make some!  I bought 3 yards of fabric for about $17..  I also bought a roll of iron on hem tape that was about $2 and 5 sheets of posterboard $3.  Now I decided to use poster board because I just needed a little bit of firmness for the sides of my boxes so they look pretty.  If you really want these to hold up to use, I would use cardboard.  If I would have had cardboard laying around, I probably would have used it! 

First I cut out my piece of posterboard. To get the size I needed I measured the space I wanted to

fit the box in. One of my spaces was 11x9. I measured the height...about 8".  So I made the middle piece 11x9 and the side pieces 8" high by either 11" or 9" all out of one piece of posterboard.

Next I laid out my fabric under the posterboard and pushed a pin down into the carpet to hold it while I cut around the posterboard.  On the small sides I cut right to the poster board except for a 1" allowance at the top of the soon to be side. I left about 2" all the way around the large sides for hemming with.

Now I ironed the fabric and assembled the box with simple painters tape/masking tape. As you can see my poster board wasnt big enough so I added a piece and taped it on as well. 

Now to add the fabric.  I placed the box down on in the middle of the fabric and brought up the fabric on the sides.  You cut a piece of hem tape the length of your box side and lay it on the inside rim of the box.  You bring your fabric up and fold it over the edge of the box on top of the hem tape. Now iron that in place. Repeat this step on each of the four sides.

Now to finish the four corners of the box.  I had cut extra fabric on the long sides of the box so you take that piece and fold it under to create a hemmed look.  Take another piece of hem tape and place that under the folded edge and iron it down to the end of the box.  Sorry my camera wouldnt take a very good picture of this. You can kind of see the edge of the fabric on this box corner. Repeat on all four corners and any loose fabric can be glued down with fabric glue. 

These boxes only took me about 15 minutes to make and they really enhanced our bookcase by hiding our clutter!!

Heres the before picture..

and heres after!! No more takle boxes!!!

With the 3 yards of fabric I was able to make 4 large boxes. I didnt take the time to line them but it would be easy to do!  

So here is my office makeover.  I will be sharing how to make the note board next time. Now how to cover those unsightly computer cords???  But for now Ethan needs me to come rescue him from the swing :)