Desk Organzier Made Out of Cardboard

Well I had planned on typing this post this weekend but I find my self typing it on a Monday morning sipping my coffee. I am once again taking the Come 2 Chat Challenge, this weeks challenge is Cardboard Classic. You take any type of cardboard (cereal box, old shipping box, etc.) and reuse it in a practical way (i.e. toys, organizers, embellishments, furniture, etc.). I find my desk is ummm… a disaster area, I find by the end of the day everything is piled high on top of it. I figured I would take this opportunity and make a desk organizer. I drew up a plan on graph paper – to scale so I knew what I was building and how I was building it.

Saltines box for the drawer

Two cereal boxes I glued an taped together – for the holding paper and book part.

Sam Adams box used to build the drawer space.

Construction on the drawer space. It is approximately 6″x6″.

Blurry – what it looked like taped and glued together.

The pencil holder thing being built.

Ready to be paper mached!

Showing what I want to do for the handle.

I decided to paper mache this piece for several reasons, the big one is durability. I was just using cereal boxes and I want them sturdy (remember I have a Booga). I also used boxes that were different colors so not only does it is more durable now but it will be easier to paint because everything is now the same color.

I used a simple Paper Mache Recipe:

1TBSP White Flour

1 Cup of Water

boiled them on the stove I let it cool and it was perfect – I did add 3 drops of lavender oil to the mixture. I cut newsprint paper into strips and paper mached the whole thing. The process took close to three hours (way longer than expected!)

Finished not painted

The drawer in use.

The finished piece not painted. I am thinking of doing a faux leather and wood on it. Not really sure, I might just leave it. I hope this gives everyone a new was to look at recycling their old boxes!