To celebrate Trash to Treasure Week on American Crafter I have an up-cycling tutorial for you!
Meet my cardboard bookshelf!
Isn’t she a beauty?
***Try to ignore the worn spots- this has been HEAVILY used for 3 months- I made it awhile back and forgot to take a photo
Here’s what you’ll need:
Sturdy cardboard box- the thicker the better
Box cutter
Duct Tape
Old Book
Mod Podge
Cardstock
1. Cut off one side of your box and tape down any loose ends
2. If you want you can use the leftover cardboard to build a little shelf.
3. Using torn book pages and your mod podge go to town and cover the whole box
4. Now you can embellish! I used my Cricut and SCAL to cut out some silhouettes of little miss reading for each end and then a full alphabet.
I love the personal touch!
Finished!
This has been one of my favorite projects. Little miss plays with her books every day. I put it right in front of our bookshelf in the living room and we keep all of her library books in it.
Happy Reading!

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6 Responses
OMG thank for this so much! I need bookshelves but don’t want to buy them, especially when my basement is swimming with card board boxes!!!
This is a fantastic idea! They used to order similar storage at work, stupidly expensive, and not as versatile as yours, a great make!
My roommates and I used to use apple boxes from the local grocery store, held together with duct tape, for bookshelves when we were in university – and my hubs and i used diaper boxes after we had kids! none were as cute as yours, though (i never covered them… lol!) I think i might have to go find something pretty to put on the ones that are still hanging around… thanks for sharing!
I’ve been using cardboard boxes for everything lately. So economical! This is a great idea.
i need more mod podge ideas. this is great!
This is really cute!!! I’ve been thinking lately about things to do with cardboard boxes- never thought of making a bookshelf with them! What a cool idea!