How to Turn Hardware Store Items into Organizational Decor

Entry #393, January 21, 2011

Who would of thought that a trip to your local home improvement store could bring you back a new organization decorative item for your home? I found this cool article from Country Living – Hardware-Store Decor feature. Where they have taken cardboard tubes  from a hardware store and assembled decorative organization tubes for your household items! Take a look!

Cardboard tubes become decorative organization!

HARDWARE-STORE STAPLE: Cardboard tubes
RADICAL REINVENTION: Chic wall storage

1. Purchase two, four-foot-tall cardboard tubes, one measuring 10 inches wide and the other 12 inches wide. Use a jigsaw to cut each tube into smaller tubes of varying heights (refer to the photo at left for guidance).

2. Cover the outside of each smaller tube with contact paper. Cut away any excess paper with a utility knife.

3. Arrange the tubes on the floor as you’d like them to hang. Wherever two meet, use an awl to poke a hole through both. Slide a no. 10 washer onto a 6-32 x ½” bolt, push the bolt through both tubes, slide another no. 10 washer onto the bolt, and secure with a nut. Fasten all the pieces together in this way.

4. To create load-bearing braces, slide a piece of wood that’s at least an inch thick underneath one of the topmost tubes. Trace an arc along the top half of the tube’s interior onto the wood. Measure down two inches and draw another arc that connects to the first, making a crescent shape. Repeat for all the tubes on the top row.

5. Use a jigsaw to cut out crescents from wood, following the shapes you drew. Drill a hole into the center of each shape.

6. With a friend’s help, position the tubes on your wall. Use a pencil to lightly trace the top arc on the wall, along the interior of each topmost tube. Set the tubes aside. Place a brace so it aligns with one of the drawn-on arcs, then stick a pencil through the brace’s hole to make another small mark on the wall. Drill a hole in that spot, then tap in a plastic anchor until it’s flush against the wall. Repeat with remaining braces.

7. Align the hole in one brace with the corresponding anchor. Using a drill with a Phillips-head bit, screw the brace to the wall. Repeat with remaining braces. Set the tubes onto the braces.

8. At the back of each supported tube, just above the brace, make a pilot hole with an awl. Fasten the tubes to the braces using ¾-inch screws.

Watch Stagetecture’s You Tube Channel for more DIY ideas