When I started work on my son’s nursery a million (read five) years ago, I knew DIY was going to come into play, a lot.
I wanted his room to have “my stamp” and in this case, that meant “shabby chic with loads of buttons”.
The first thing I ended up making was this button monogrammed toy box – and I have only lost two buttons in five years which is very impressive since the boys climb on and in this thing all the time. Follow the simple instructions below to create your own DIY toy box.You will need:
1. A suitable box (I got a small wooden crate like one from a thrift store);
2. Scissors;
3. Glue – I used the No More Nails glue from Pattex;
4. Tons of buttons – material shops sell them in packets for a steal;
5. Template of the letter you need – and you can honestly just print the letter from a Word document.
What you do:
1. Print your letter template and cut out, then use this to trace the shape of the letter onto your box;
2. You will now use the template to figure out which buttons you will need. It takes some trial and error to get the shape and shade you want, and doing it on the paper makes it much easier than on the box itself;
3. Now glue the buttons in place on the box, having laid it out on the other template makes this so much easier because it’s basically transferring. 4. You can put modge podge (a craft glue used to seal and finish decoupage art) over the letter to secure the buttons, but honestly mine has survived fine without it.
And – ta-dah! – you have a monogrammed toy box!