Cardboard Magazine file boxes

Since we love design, arts and crafts and collecting things from across the ages, we run into a problem of storage on a daily basis. We have looked for a good solution and have improved our situation with a custom built wall shelf in our loft that is 16 ft wide by 11 ft tall, but we have been looking for a system to organize its contents for awhile now.

Having gone to many different stores in the Bay Area, we decided that to be most efficient we would have to embark on a journey to create our own boxes. This turned out not only to be the most cost and space efficient solution, but also the most flexible since we could decide on the sizes of our boxes as well as the colors and the details.

The Bare Bones

It took some time to figure out what size would work the best for the bookshelf. As an example the magazine files that we ended up with are wider than store-bought. They are also taller and deeper so they can hold magazines that are custom sizes (such as vintage Life Magazine and Metropolis). We also wanted them to fit perfectly on the bookshelf. After the measurements were complete we set out on the box making journey. With this we had some help as a friend of ours designs cardboard boxes for living, but nothing that we ended up with couldn't be done at home. Some sturdy cardboard, as smooth as possible (the least amount of ripple like quality the better) and glue (PVA) is all you need. We glued our boxes and let them dry overnight with the help of some heavy objects from around the house (like wine bottles, heavy books etc.)
If this is a part that you would rather skip, there are ready made cardboard magazine files that you can buy and still make them custom by choosing your own paper/bookcloth to wrap them with. You can find reasonably priced cardboard magazine files at BagsUnlimited.com.

After that was done, we chose a palette of three solid colors. To simplify the look and feel of the bookshelf, we decided against busy patterns for the covers.

After much research, and few disappointments when it came to the price on some options out there (vintage wallpaper etc), we decided on book cloth.
We ordered book cloth samples from TalasOnline.com to see if the colors matched what we had in mind. Things look very different on screen than in person. After settling on a few choices, we decided to order in bulk to make it cheaper.

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