From Trash to Treasure (well to something functional anyway)

Another Before and After project I have recently finished:

I brought two of these ugly speaker boxes home from church after there was a clean out - planning to dump them in the bins at home:

Before:

I was fiddling around with them and having seen Lauren's post a while ago with her georgeous toy boxes an idea snuck into my mind...

I gutted the boxes and tossed out all the wirey junk. Then I screwed the two boxes together lengthwise and wah - la they fit just where i wanted them too in the front entrance!

Then I gave them a coat of Prep-lock (love this stuff - paint that adheres to all sorts of surfaces and acts as an undercoat/primer before applying 'normal' paint) . Then a lick of white semi-gloss. I really need to give them another coat but was so eager to see it finished I haven't gone back to give it another coat:(

I had a friend cut a sheet of MDF to the right size for me, padded the top with layers of leftover carpet underlay followed by soft wadding. Then I used an piece of checkered blue/white blanket I picked up from fabric scrap bin at Salvos and staple-gunned it onto the lid. The lid is just sitting on top because I was a bit unsure of how to work out the hinges (hubby has since filled me in (another thing I haven't fixed due to my lazy pregnant state:(

Then with hubby's help and the right type of screws for chipboard - we screwed on wheels (I deliberately chose one set of wheels with locks on them end to avoid it being wheeled into walls:) though i wanted box to be able to move when I vacuumed and to have added height. (Incidentally if you want wheels we have found Super Cheap Auto a great place )

After

The purpose of the box -

• storage
• a seat for little ones to sit on while they put their shoes on/off

There - managed to save two ugly speaker boxes from joining the scrap heap (thanks for inspiration, Lauren) and have two happy campers...

Next job... to teach Rosa which shoe goes on which foot ...