Thursday, January 28, 2010

5 Office Makeover: Part 4 - Boxed Up!

Hi All!  Back again to reveal another little piece of the overall Office Makeover.  For all of you checking in for the first time, here is a look back at the process started a little over a month ago, and some of the glimpses into the final reveal.  Part 1 (Where I spilled the beans about switching my office and sitting room around), Part 2 (shows you my desk transformation) and Part 3 (a couple of memo board projects).

Today I am sharing a quick way to add some adorable tags/labels to typical paper boxes, found at.... you guessed it, Ikea!  I am going to have to figure out how to speak with a Swedish accent here soon, I can't seem to get enough of that place for this month's makeover!

I started out with some typical white magazine boxes:
I went with a total of 4 of these jumbo boxes for a couple of reasons.  First, I realized they hold and conceal a ton of stuff!  That is reason enough really, however, they also fit into the shelving unit perfectly, which is another huge plus!
Here they are before being tagged with goodness:

I started off using Microsoft Excel (which you will find is my secret weapon when making any personalized labels), to throw together a little template using the same pink that I did for the "J" in my bulletin board project.
 

And then I added in some WordArt stating the contents of the box, printed them out on some white card-stock, and cut them out.

 

Next I played with some ideas on how I wanted to attach them to the boxes.  I decided this time to forgo the laminating process, since the boxes will be up high out of kids reach, and I am going for a softer chic look.  I thought about using ribbon to dangle the tags, but there are slots pre-cut into the boxes for the typical tag option, and I wanted to make sure those were concealed.  I thought about using grommets, too much work for this quick project.  So I landed on using these bling bling scrapbook brads, another fun and girly touch to my new space!
To attach the brad through the label and the box, I first punched a hole through all of the label tops in the same spot.


I then used some double sided tape and placed each label right over the pre-slit spots on the box, and used a pushpin to poke an easy hole through the cardboard.


Next, I popped in the beautiful brad, and the project was complete!


Here they are all clustered together.

 

And here they are in their new home.

 

Anyone noticing a consistent accent color yet?  It keeps popping up within each post...

What do you guys think of the magazine boxes from Ikea?  Anyone else totally diggin' them for the amazing storage capacity?  Anyone try to put one (or four) of these super naughty boys together?  Make sure you leave yourself a couple of hours when you do, and when you start, you will know why I say that!  Arg!  Oh well, for the price and the end result, it's so worth the time and loss of finger function!


5 comments:

  1. Another cute idea! And I actually bought some boxes just like that this past weekend in an early attempt to start organizing our office - although mine are from Walmart.. there's no Ikea here (so sad!). Anyways, super cute - I love the little jewels on them!
    Chelsea

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  2. Thank you both! Such an easy quick project to add a little splash of color, and it could be done with any type of storage box, so it's pretty versatile!!

    I appreciate you checking in! Have a fabulous weekend!!

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  3. I love the labels. . . can you share more about how you create the template in excel? Or if that is an image you downloaded from somewhere?

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  4. Hi Aimee!

    I actually just created them using Excel. I have high hopes of getting a tutorial on creating labels in Excel posted sooner than later so stay tuned!

    xoxo,
    Jen

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