I started this project to make dividers for my desk drawer. I had to organize all the stuff that I use on a daily basis: pens, markers, clips, tape etc. But as I was going on, my dividers became too precious to waste on office supplies. With their pink fabric and velvet ribbons they had to go in my dresser in order to accommodate my (few – very few) pieces of jewelry.
They are so simple and easy to make! I just gathered a few boxes and their lids, some pretty fabric, ribbon, a glue stick, a ruler, a pencil, scissors, and I was ready to start! I used boxes and lids from jewelry, cell phones, and even an iPad, but you can use any kind and size you like!
I followed the step-by-step tutorial How To Cover A Box With Fabric by Diane Henkler from In My Own Style which is detailed and easy.
The only thing I changed was using a glue stick (the regular kind) instead of spray glue. I find it easier to work with and it makes fabric adhere on carton very nicely.
Once I had the fabric cut to size, I used my pencil to mark the four corners of my box, so I would know exactly where to place it once I had the glue on the bottom of the box.
Because mine are open boxes/dividers (and not closed boxes as per Diane’s) the inside part would show more than the outside -I had to hide any imperfections of the fabric folding inside the box. So I cut four pieces of ribbon – two of them to cover the long side of the box which were about one inch longer (they covered a little bit of the short side of the box, too). And two of them exactly the size of the short side of the box, so they would cover the ribbon that continued from the long sides. I ran my ruler along the ribbon to make sure it would adhere nicely. I also used the ruler to press on the corners and make them sharp. I tried to use different types of ribbon, but found that velvet ribbon sticks the best – mine was a dark rich brown that contrasted nicely with the pink fabric. I used darker fabric to cover the boxes that had printing on, such as brands, logos, etc.
Most of the boxes had perfect inside finishes. But a couple of them had glue residue. For those, I cut a piece of fabric to size and glued it on the base to hide anything that wouldn’t look nice, like this:
The fabric and velvet ribbon give that luxury feeling. I absolutely love them!
