Fabulous and Affordable Magazine Boxes

After the success of my mini drawers in the downstairs cloakroom, I decided to have another go at revamping a boring Ikea storage item.  This time it was wooden magazine file boxes.

Ikea Knuff Magazine File

Once again, I started by giving the boxes a light sand, then used spray paint to prime and paint them.  I also gave them a light sand in-between each layer, to ensure a smooth finish.  I used the same supplies as last time.

Once the boxes were painted, I wanted to add a word on the side of each, to show what was stored inside.  Unfortunately I don't own a Silhouette, so I had to do it the manual way. I created a PowerPoint  document with text outlines (the font is called Brush Script Std).

I printed the file on plain white copy paper, then carefully cut around the whole outline.  This took me quite a while, as I wanted it to be very neat.  I then used my Decoupatch glue to add it to the spine of the boxes.  I added a final coat of varnish to give them a durable, glossy look.

After I had finished, I realised I had left the dot off the top of the "i" in "drafting".  Oh well.

On another, slightly unrelated, note I was playing around with Photoshop and tried to edit my photos to make them clearer.  I'm not sure I've achieved this, because the boxes still look darker than they actually are.  I much prefer taking pictures outside, using early morning daylight, but it's raining today.  Instead I made a mini-studio in the dining room, but I was struggling with down lights and my flash just made things worse.