Repurposed Wine Box

Repurpose a thrifted wine box into a pencil and pen organizer for your desk. Add scrolled wood accents and wood feet for a touch of character.

Do you remember this wine box?

I was crazy excited about Emily’s project because I’m a huge tea fan and my tea cabinet is…well, it’s a mess of stacked boxes and random packaged bags.

When I laid eyes on her project, I knew I wanted to make one myself, but wondered how long it might take to find a wine box similar to the one Emily had.

Can you believe this?

I found this $2 lovely on one of my thrift store trips and my heart fairly skipped a beat because it wasn’t just similar, but with the exception of the artwork – it was exactly the same!

Detour

I’m sure you’ve heard the adage: “Necessity is the mother of invention”, right?

Well, that’s exactly where the credit for this project goes.

As much as I wanted to make my own tea chest, we had a nagging problem that the wine box would perfectly solve.

And you’ve probably also heard that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Well, in this case, the squeaky wheel got the wine box.

The Problem

We finally bought a table this year for homeschooling, and have now given our poor dining room table a break. It isn’t very big but works perfectly for the three youngest kids and me except for one thing…

We needed a place to keep pens, pencils, markers, and highlighters handy – and organized!

So the tea chest plans were put on hold, and I used the wine box to make an organized holder for our table instead.

That tea chest is going to happen – I’m determined!

The Solution

For our organizer, I didn’t need the top or handle, so off they both came, along with the hardware.

Next, I sanded the sides to get rid of most of the paint and filled the handle holes with wood filler.

All this project required was a couple of colors of paint, some scrolled wood accents, and wooden feet.

The box took 3 coats of paint, but the wood accents only needed one.

I attached them with craft glue and they dressed the plain box up nicely!

I love those little wooden feet! They gave the organizer a more finished look and I later added a round furniture pad to each one to prevent any scratches on the table.

And there it is – just waiting to go to work!

Long ago, when we first began homeschooling, I read another adage: “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

Now everything has its own place and I’ve just eliminated the possible excuse that a pencil can’t be found. 🙂

Yes, they would try that one!

 

Live Creatively,