how to cover magazine holders so they’re not ugly

Well hi there! I took a week off from this blog and now I’m back! I am constantly trying to get my home organized, which seems like a never-ending task. Seriously, I’ll get something accomplished and the moment I leave the room it’s undone. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point. I’ve been needing to find a solution to the magazine epidemic that is afflicting my home. We get a ton of magazines and there are some that Mr. Sparklepants and I cannot seem to part with, probably too many. We have a collection of Dwell, Atomic Ranch, Monocle, Martha Stewart Living and Ready Made. I can’t be without these resources, so I needed to find a way to corral them. Enter cheap cardboard magazine holders from Ikea.

I feel like this is kind of a silly tutorial to write because basically all I did was cover inexpensive cardboard magazine holders with fancy paper. Ah, but there is a science to it my friends. First, the magazine holder is made of corregated cardboard, so anything you glue to it is going to have a not-so-lovely rippled effect. Second, it’s cardboard..it needs a little support to maintain it’s sturdiness. I’ll just point out the important stuff, you can figure out the rest..

So here we go:

Gather your supplies:

I used my fancy paper, found here (it reminded me of Orla Keiley, so therefore it’s awesome), some kraft paper (or whatever you want), cardboard magazine holders, 3M Adhesive spray, glue stick, scissors, x-acto knife, a cutting mat, and chipboard or cardstock…I used cereal boxes, backs of scrapbook paper packs..anything I could find that was stiff and had a smooth surface.

I’ll spare you the details of cutting out the paper and the gluing.. I know you can handle that. Just trace your magazine holder on to the chipboard, cut it out and glue it on. I covered all four sides, then glued my paper on top. Just make sure you spray the glue in a well ventilated area and wear a mask, you don’t want that stuff in your lungs.

Just the important stuff: cut around the curved edges like this:

And then glue them like this:

I used a glue stick for the part above. Then I used the adhesive spray to stick the kraft paper to the box. After the kraft paper was on, I carefully cut out my “fancy paper” to fit nicely on the front and back of the magazine holder, overlapping each side about one inch or so.

That’s all there is to it. It takes up some time to get them all finished, but it’s definitely worth not having stacks of magazines next to the sofa, or on the coffee table or…

Plus, it’s just paper. When orange is no longer my favorite color *gasp* I can just recover them with something different.. Maybe fabric!

Linked to: Today’s Creative Blog, The Stories of A 2 Z, Tip Junkie, All Things Heart and Home, Blue Cricket Design, The Thrify Home, At Home With K, Sugar and Dots, Someday Crafts, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Remodelaholic, Thirty Handmade Days, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, I ♥ Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Making The World Cuter, Keeping It Simple, Decor Chick