I found these 3 plain brown boxes at my local supermarket and wanted to transform them into cute storage boxes for my office. I had seen lots of Pinterest posts on dupes of the Kate Spade ones and wanted to recreate my own.

Here is what it looked like before. It was really plain, and really brown. I wanted to paint one with black and white stripes, one with black polka dots, and one wrapped in cute pattern wrapping paper.

It’s really simple and easy to do. First, I did 2 coats of white paint over the boxes. Leave these to dry. If you want to skip this step just buy white boxes already. These Ikea ones are pretty good!

For the stripes – measure the length and divide it evenly depending on the size of the box. I went for around 4cm, but you want to measure it evenly so you don’t even up with an uneven bit at the end. Then just tape every second stripe with painters tape. I really recommend painters tape as they peel off quite easily and don’t rip the cardboard underneath. I learnt the hard way when I used regular maskng or sticky tape! Paint the sections black with 2 coats. Let it dry then peel the tape off.

For the polka dots – I was going for a irregular free-hand sort of look. Using a brush I just painted circles on the box and filled them in making black dots. Eyeball the spacing between dots. If you are going for this look, don’t worry about making mistakes!

For the wrapping – I used cute food patterned wrapping from Frankie Magazine. Before starting, make sure you’ve got enough paper to wrap the entire box, and the lid! Using modge podge, paint one side of the box at a time. Stick the paper on the side, then fold in the edges and tape down (just like you are wrapping a present). Overlap with wrapping on the other sides. And that’s a wrap! (Get it?) heehee.

Super easy ways to decorate your boxes and have beautiful looking storage boxes on your shelves. I am storing spare notebooks, craft supplies and paint in mine!