DIY Box (52 Photos): How To Make It From Improvised Means At Home, From A Reel Of Scotch Tape And Shells? Decor Options

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 13:15

Despite the fact that you can find a wide variety of boxes on sale, many strive to make beautiful boxes for jewelry, papers, postcards, money and other important things with their own hands. Moreover, in everyday life there are many materials at hand that allow you to create gizmos that are unique in decor. A box made with your own hand can not only be used by yourself, but also presented as an original gift, making a loved one happy.

How to make from wood?

Wooden boxes are a safe place to store small items. Wood opens up a lot of room for creativity. Some models require special skills in working with this material and a special tool.

In the hands of a real professional, the tree turns into a unique object, especially if the box is made by hand with the help of carving, and also has a complex internal structure - several tiers or compartments.

At the same time, even a child with minimal experience in labor lessons can cope with the creation of a plywood box.

For work, you need to choose a good quality material that will certainly not crack or split.

The classic box has the shape of a rectangle. To begin with, you need to draw future walls on plywood - 2 long, and the same amount - shorter. The bottom is calculated so that after aligning the parts, it enters the inside of the sidewalls.

The parts are sawn out using a jigsaw. Semi-finished elements are brought to mind with sandpaper in order to get rid of jags and irregularities.

For a beautiful connection of parts in them, you can make grooves in the thickness of the plywood. Thanks to this, the structure will be durable.

When combining the parts, the side walls are first glued together, and the bottom is installed after that . It must hold firmly in place.

If it does not fit well in the place intended for it, you can file it with a file.

It remains to make a cover. It can be flat or deep. A more complex - non-flat - design is made in the same way as the box itself. You can connect the upper part with it with loops. At the final stage, it remains to varnish or paint the thing. The workpiece can also be externally aged, covered with leather, and so on, if desired.

By the same principle, a box is made from an ordinary board

Although in this case, instead of a jigsaw, you need to use a circular saw.

Paper making workshop

It is quick and easy to make a variety of crafts from thick paper. You can use the origami technique by assembling a casket from individual paper pieces, folded in a special way, or use cardboard as the base of the box. For example, a paper box in the shape of a heart will look beautiful.

• Using a pre-prepared pattern, make two basic parts of the future casket, having the shape of a heart. One is the bottom and the other is the lid.
• Prepare the walls of the product with a pre-planned height.
• Make cuts on the side parts and glue to the base with Moment glue.
• Attach the lid to the resulting container by gluing one to the other on pieces of fabric.
• Inside, it remains to glue the casket with beautiful paper or velvet-type fabric. To decorate the lid, you can use the decoupage technique, paint it or decorate it with homemade flowers.

Most of the paper is in the book. It is the old book, which no one will definitely read, that can be used for the original box. You need to take a hardcover copy. If you plan to use the future box not only for storing things, but also as an interior decoration, it can be finished on the outside in a special way, and if its purpose is serve as a cache, it is better to leave the "appearance" of the product as it was originally.

• On the first page of the book, you need to draw a geometric figure, stepping back a few centimeters from the edges. You can choose a rectangle, square, or even a circle as a base. It all depends on the design of the internal structure. Nobody will forbid to provide several compartments for things inside the book.
• Then you need to cut through all the pages with a clerical knife. It is important not to tilt the cutting tool so that the cut is strictly vertical. Remove excess paper.
• The pages will have to be glued together. You should not totally fasten each sheet with the next one. So the book inside will first get wet and then warp it. It is enough to ensure that the pages do not flip through, and the structure is solid.
• If you want to give the interior of the book-box a more elegant look, the perimeter of the cut can be sealed with paper and varnished.
• Outside, the box is, if desired, equipped with a lock from a craft store or simply attached to the base and lid of the ribbon. It is convenient to tie them so that the box does not open at the most inopportune moment.

Interesting ideas for creating from improvised means

To create boxes that are original in appearance at home, you can use the most unexpected things, among which many are most often intended to be "thrown away".

Beautiful gizmos are obtained from:

• boxes of shoes, dishes or sweets;
• solid containers for juice or milk;
• ice cream or jam buckets;
• egg containers;
• toilet paper tubes;
• tape bushings.

The process of making many decorative boxes only seems complicated at first. In fact, the "technological side" of the issue is often not difficult, more important is the ability to do everything accurately.

From a reel of scotch tape

To create a box for small items, you will need 2 identical spools and cardboard. The sleeve is placed on a piece of cardboard and outlined with a pencil. You will need 2 cardboard circles for the bottom of the box and its lid.

If you want the lid to be narrower than the base, it must be cut lengthwise to the desired height . Now the cardboard blanks are glued to the sleeves. You can decorate the blanks in different ways, for example, sheathe it with a cloth, or create a decor with polymer clay.

From ice cream sticks

It is possible to "build" an interesting-looking box for rings and earrings or some other small valuables from wooden flat sticks.

First, the base is created . The bottom is laid out from a dozen blanks, which are held together with a glue gun.

Then the walls are laid out and fastened to the desired height. The cover is made in the same way. For decoration, you can also use materials at hand, from napkins to beads.

You can connect the upper and lower parts by making "loops" from strips of fabric glued to the lid and base

From seashells

Shells are a special material that allows you to create a unique item for storing a variety of things. Sometimes, after returning from vacation, people bring with them whole supplies of such gifts of nature. If you glue the base for the box with them, the result will be great. But even if there are no real shells, you can use pasta that has a similar shape.

It is important that the "base" for the shells is strong and does not deform during the pasting process ., because the "seafood" themselves have a fairly large mass.

At the end, the casket is varnished.

If pasta shells are used, they must first be covered with paint.

From newspaper tubes

People who know how to weave from newspaper tubes can easily create caskets of various shapes from such waste material. If you plan to store rather small things in a wicker box, it is better to take a cardboard box as a basis for weaving.

First you need to twist a large number of tubes. To do this, use a knitting needle. It is laid diagonally on a newspaper sheet (3-4 formats) and twisted, leading along the working surface with palms pressed to the knitting needle. Instead of a newspaper, you can take, for example, sheets from a glossy magazine. The tubes must be of the same diameter . Do not make them too thick and long.

Then a rectangle is cut out of the cardboard to fit the bottom of the prepared box.

The box is turned over. Draw a rectangle around the perimeter of the bottom and, focusing on it, carefully at regular intervals - 5-6 cm - stick the tubes. A prepared cardboard rectangle is glued to the bottom, closing the attached tubes.

The free parts of the tubes are lifted up along the walls of the box and braided with prepared "vines", tightly pressing the rows against each other . To prevent the structure from falling apart, glue is used during weaving, with which newspaper blanks are held together.

The lid is made in the same way.

If desired, it can be attached to the bottom with loop ropes.

Decor options

For many, decorating a box is the most interesting part of creating it. And this is not surprising. It is thanks to the design that the final unique image is obtained, and the creator has the opportunity to apply his existing skills in handling certain items for decoration. Here you can use the skills to draw, knit, sculpt, sew and others.

You can decorate the box using a variety of techniques . For example, trim it with fabric to make it soft and comfortable to look at. In this way, you can bring "to mind" a cardboard box designed for storing threads and buttons.

You need to take a synthetic winterizer and cut out parts from it according to the dimensions of the walls, bottom and lid. It is important to take a material that has a thin structure so that the casket does not look like a pillow. First, you can glue such a piece to the bottom. It is better to use Moment glue for fastening the sintepon gasket and the case . It is evenly distributed over the surface and the synthetic winterizer is pressed against it.

The rest of the casket is also pasted over. Then a piece of fabric is cut out for the back wall of the box with allowances for bends (2-3 centimeters). Glued to the designated place using PVA glue. It is applied over the padding polyester with a brush or roller. It is important that the adhesive is evenly spread over the surface . This will prevent it from bleeding through the fabric if there is a lot of glue. And there will be no non-glued areas on the fabric decor if there was not enough glue somewhere.

It is important to glue a piece of fabric so that there are no folds and distortions on it. Then the allowances are attached to the body, moving from the middle to the edges and bending the fabric inward and towards the bottom. Clamps can be used for better adhesion to the base. The fabric will need to be trimmed in the corners.

In this way, the side walls and the bottom are pasted over from the outside . The interior decoration can be made of the same fabric as the exterior, or you can take another one.

A blank is cut out according to the size of the bottom inside the box made of watercolor paper. A tissue flap of the appropriate size (with allowances) is glued to it. Now the paper "bottom", pasted over with a cloth, is attached in place. The fabric allowances are folded onto the walls.

The inner surface of the walls is decorated in the same way. The same manipulations are performed with the lid. Satin ribbons or lace can be glued around the perimeter of the box and its lid, which will complete the picture and hide the joints of the fabric.

To decorate the box, it is convenient to use ordinary boiled egg shells and napkins . The removed shells are dried and crushed. You can also leave rather large pieces, which are already "crushed" in the process of work directly on the surface of the walls and lid of the casket. But first, the surface of the future "masterpiece", which will serve as a repository of values, is painted and then covered with a layer of glue. Until he grabbed, the shells are distributed over him. After drying, the surface is again covered with a layer of paint (or several).

Then comes the time to use decorative napkins. It is recommended to grease the top layer of thin paper well with PVA glue and attach it to the wall of the box so that it lies flat. True, people who have experience in decoupage understand that a soggy napkin easily breaks and wrinkles.

Therefore, you need to act very carefully.

After drying, the decorated box is treated with glue again

If such a thing is made of natural wood, the easiest way to complete it is by covering it with varnish that emphasizes the natural pattern on it. But still, wooden caskets decorated with carvings look more interesting. If you don't have a lot of experience in creating three-dimensional woodwork, it is better to start with large, simple geometric patterns.

They are cut out with a chisel or an oblique knife according to a previously clearly drawn pencil drawing. Flaws in the thread can be corrected with fine sandpaper.

If the box is not too small, you can even decorate it with wallpaper with a textured pattern. For work, PVA glue, slightly diluted with water, is suitable . Prepared pieces of paper are smeared with it, let it soak in this composition so that the future coating swells slightly. After that, the prepared decor is placed on the lid or side of the box and pressed well, ensuring that the grip is strong, and that bubbles and folds do not appear.

After the glued elements have dried, you can paint the box with black acrylic paint, and then, when dry, apply a layer of red. Finally, add silver, and then the color of bronze.

For staining, disposable paper towels are used, which are moistened with paint, and from them the color is transferred to the prepared surface. Thanks to this approach, the effect of color inhomogeneity is achieved. Gradually, the box looks like it is an antique metal thing. Finally, it needs to be covered with a layer of varnish.

Those who know how to embroider will be able to demonstrate their skills when creating the decor of the box . To do this, you need to embroider the pattern you like on the canvas with a cross. It is imperative to take high-quality threads - cheap ones will quickly fade and lose their appearance, and with them the whole product. The canvas with the finished image must be attached to the lid using threads and glue, making sure that the drawing is in the center of the plane.

Now the edges of the lid over the edge of the canvas are trimmed with tape. The box itself can be finished with putty. As a stencil, for example, a rubberized shop napkin under lace is taken. It needs to be covered with a layer of putty, then removed, wait until the resulting image grabs, and varnished.

Fans of everything shiny and sparkling can use shards of a mirror or mirror-coated plastic as decoration . Unnecessary disks for your computer will do as well. To begin with, prepare pieces of the future mirror mosaic. They don't have to be the same shape. It can be squares, triangles, hexagons and other geometric shapes that can look beautiful on a plane in addition to each other.

The surface of the box is covered with glue, and then the prepared elements are glued so that they do not adhere tightly to one another. Leave the box for several hours.

If desired, the gaps between the mirror coating elements can be filled with paint, for example, over the fabric.

Caskets decorated with flowers and beads look very nice. Flowers can be made using different techniques. To do this, you can, for example, use a stencil, or cut out suitable fragments from napkins or decoupage cards. Volumetric flowers cut from paper, ribbons, or created from foamiran look good.

It remains to arrange them beautifully on the surface of the box - and you're done

As for the beads, it can be a pearl decoration or various transparent stones. There is a huge selection of such products in shops for creativity. Shiny buttons and sequins will come in handy too. The good thing about the decor is that it gives the impression of wealth.

Great for caskets that store women's jewelry.

Original ideas

Any real man has a lot of pieces of iron in the store, which, when combined with each other, can turn in skillful hands into a wonderful decoration for a steampunk box.

Masters of their craft will give a wooden box an unusual shape and decorate no less original.

The box in the form of an old telephone will become not only a convenient storage for small things, but also an organic decoration of the interior, decorated in the appropriate spirit.

A small casket in the form of a sofa will take its rightful place in the children's room. In it, the girl will be able to keep her cute secrets.