New Work Space/ DIY: Shadow Box Shelves From an Old Sewing Box

 shadow box shelves

Tony was generous enough to give me a corner of his office as a workspace for my crafty, creative endeavors. It isn't the prettiest space in the world (no natural light) but it's mine. I collected all my lovely  upcycled jewelry supplies  that were piling up around the house and organized them on my new/old metal shelves. Unfortunately, my yarn stash still has to live in a totally different part of the house.

Those are all thrifted chains on the left, waiting to be upcycled

When the work space was all set up and ready to go I realized that I would be staring at a blank white wall while I worked. I  can't have that. I wanted to used something that I already had to decorate the wall space. So I transformed a thrifted, wood sewing-box into a cute ensemble of shadow boxes.

The box.

If you want to do something like this your self you will need : An old multi-tiered sewing box (or  various wooden boxes), a power drill (with drill and screwdriver bits), and long-ish screws (long enough to go through the box and anchor it to the wall),  You might also want a level (I didn't have one and mine turned out fine. But if I had one, I would have used it)

The first thing I did was take apart  the box and clean it up a bit....

Then I drilled a hole in the two top corners of each box. Hey, if you want to go all out, you can drill holes in every corner. It will make the shelves more secure, but it isn't necessary in my opinion.

One hole down

Power drills are your friend. And they are super easy to use. If you have never used one before, find a friend or relative who has one and ask them to come over and show you whats up. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, you will be looking all over the house for stuff to drill.(minds out of the gutter people)

Ok at this point I am realizing  that I didn't take enough pictures. Oh well you live and learn. My next DIY will be super killer with tons of pictures. I promise. Anywhoo. Once the holes were drilled, I laid the boxes out on the floor and decided  on a cute arrangement. I wanted it to be asymmetrical and have a mid century modern feel. And I think I achieved that.

 My next move was time to screw the boxes to the wall and I was sans level. No biggie. I simply screwed one corner of the long, rectangular box to the wall and adjusted it until it looked straight. I got Tony to stand at the back of the room and direct. Once it was straight, I screwed the other corner to the wall. I used this first box as a guide to ensure the others were straight and got to screwing those around it. 

 this photo shows that my boxes may not be perfectly straight.

 A word on studs: Since these shadow boxes are for decoration more than storage, I didn't make a fuss about finding studs to screw into. It just so happened that, with my layout, each box ended up having one corner screwed into a stud. Lucky me! Don't know what a stud is? Read this wiki: wall studs . Still confused? Don't worry about it. If your boxes are small and the trinkets you adorn them with are light, finding a stud isn't that important.

Well that's it. Basically separate the boxes, drill holes in the boxes and screw them to the wall. If you have an old sewing box laying around, and a blank wall staring you down, give it a try.