Closet Storage: Diaper Box Makeover

For my transformation of M’s closet into a little play nook, I decided to turn diaper boxes into cute storage.  Now that she’s basically potty trained (except for naps and nighttime), our succession of diaper boxes is coming to an end, but they really are great storage.

So first I cut the flaps off the boxes and then primed them, thinking the paint might not stick otherwise.  In retrospect, skip this step.  They’ll need two coats of paint anyway for consistent color and the paint sticks just fine without primer (I did an extra box after I finished these without primer, and it was just fine.

Next I went looking for fabric to line the box with and decided on this fun striped fabric I had found at the thrift store.   I don’t have a collector’s personality: I much prefer everything streamlined and organized and easy to find… but my weakness is fabric.  I love fabric.  Fabric has such possibility, it is one of the few things worth the clutter.  I always pick up any fun fabric I find at the thrift store during bag sale time (everything you can fit into a brown grocery bag for $6).  I even sometimes put favorite pieces of clothing into the fabric bin once they get misshapen and otherwise unpresentable.  So I have a cabinet filled to bursting with fabric, but it comes in handy.  So for this project I was able to pull out a whole lot of this striped fabric, already in long strips about 20” wide.

I hemmed the fabric, then sewed it into a loop to fold over the top of the box and glue down with some tacky glue.  The fabric doesn’t go all the way to the bottom of the box, but it goes a lot of the way down.

The pictures don’t do the final products justice, but you get the idea: