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A hand painted book box tutorial

November 24, 2015

I hacked this Kmart wooden planter to make a cute bookbox for the kids, not bad right? Paint for the win.

Handpainted bookbox tutorial Patchwork Cactus DIY Blog

So you know how I'm like a DIY blogger who hasn't shared a DIY project in for bloody ever. Yeah, sorry about that. Hopefully this wooden planter turned book box will make up for my too-many-free-printables-and-not-enough-crafting-ness. I know you guys love a good Kmart hack so you will be pleased to know that this planter is indeed from Kmart, ten bucks. 

I created this book box about a month ago, originally it was supposed to be something to contain the crap pile/kitchen office that accumulates between my microwave and stereo but it looked so cute that I wanted it in the lounge room for the kids books. I took all these great pictures of the process and then lost my SD card.

Bugger.

Luckily I was making another one for my friend (which I filled with nappies and wrapped in cellophane for her baby shower gift) so I took some pictures as I made that one.

Crisis averted.

Then for some freakish reason THAT SD card decided to wipe itself and I couldn't retrieve them.

What the actual?

I gave up and decided to move on from the tutorial that obviously was never going to happen. 

The ironic thing is that if I had used the box for the crap pile I would have realised that the first SD card was in fact happily sitting in said crap pile the whole freakin time. I'm not sure what the moral of the story is, any suggestions?

DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog
DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog

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DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog
DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog

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DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog
DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog

Click here to follow Patchwork Cactus on Pinterest
DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog

Materials

One wooden box – I used the planter box from Kmart. 
Normal acrylic paint
Masking or Washi tape
Contact
A paint brush 
Scissors     
Ruler
Pencil

Directions

Use your masking tape to create some sort of funky geometric pattern on the box, I measures and drew lines on it first to make sure that it was centred but whatevs. Now paint away! Next cut your contact into a scallop stencil, stick it onto the box and paint again. 

Fill it with books, toys nappies for a new mum or whatever random crap-pile you have in your house. 

DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog
DIY Handpained toy box tutorial by Patchwork Cactus Blog

If you enjoyed this post and want to give me a virtual fist bump you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or sign up to my Mailing List. You can also 'pin', 'share', 'tweet' or 'like' this post using the buttons at the bottom of the post, xoxo babs

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Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: book box, handmade gift, kmart hack

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Erin

    November 24, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    Babs this so uber cuuuuuute! X

  2. Patchwork Cactus

    December 1, 2015 at 9:55 am

    It would look cute full of muffins!

  3. Addi

    April 24, 2018 at 11:54 am

    This is still one of the best baby shower presents I was ever given (thanks Babs!). The box is still in use long after its initial purpose 🙂

    • Babs

      May 1, 2018 at 12:11 pm

      I’m so happy to hear that you still use it!

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