Updated Cardboard Magazine Holders

As promised, I'm back again with another quick and easy craft closet update.  A few weeks ago I overhauled my wood file cabinet and today I'm sharing a super easy way to update inexpensive cardboard magazine holders.  I tend to buy these inexpensive ones from IKEA because you can't beat the price and they are so easy to update and modify.

After scouring my craft supplies and going back and forth between using vintage locker tags or metal pulls, I eventually had a plan to give my inexpensive boxes a more expensive look.

I started by measuring and cutting thin strips of balsa wood to fit the front of the magazine holder.

I then stained each piece with Minwax Jacobean.

Once dry, I used hot glue to attach the wood strips to the front of each box.

(I was originally going to use the vintage locker tags, but liked the look of the pulls better.  Don't worry, those locker tags are too good not to be used somewhere.)

Now that I had the wood in place it was time to attach the brads and pulls.  I normally use the thicker balsa wood, but for this project I picked up the super thin pieces.  The wood is so soft that I was able to poke holes using a small drill bit. 

You would never know from the front of the boxes that they are actually made out of inexpensive cardboard.

I placed them on one of the shelves in my craft closet and I love how they tie in with my faux specimen file cabinet. 

I think they turned out pretty well considering they ended up costing less than $1.50 a piece to update.