Box Cubes for Storage or Play

When designing a child’s room this has to be done differently from other bedrooms in the house. A child thinks about playing and your job is to give them that space that they create their own little play and work area. Here is a simple and inexpensive idea for using box cubes for play or storage area.

In decorating this child’s room the only furniture we are including would consists of a bed, a tiny chair and a dozen gaily painted plywood boxes; that is all we will need. The modular boxes, lets make this sixteen inches cubes, are easy to build, inexpensive and very versatile, The box cubes will stack together to form useful bookcases, room dividers, wall storage cabinets, desks and other prosaic things that you the parents think would be needed. These will also go together to make caves, tunnels, airplanes, houses, trains and other wondrous things that children could utilize for their play area.

Although the boxes are sturdy, they’re so lightweight a young child can lift one. To make the boxes more fun yet still usable for storage, some have large holes – two round or rectangular holes in opposite sides or a large round hole in one side.

The tools that would be needed:

The boxes have one fourth inch plywood sides (lauan plywood is excellent), joined together with aluminum corner moldings (#3006 of the do-it-yourself aluminum). You can make seven of the box cubes from two sheets of plywood. For the same seven cubes, you’ll need about thirty-eight feet of the aluminum molding. Glue or wall-paneling mastic will also be needed.

You can build the box cubes with only hand tools, but a radial-arm saw or table saw makes the job much easier (unless you have the plywood panels cut at the lumberyard). You can cut the aluminum right along with the plywood if you use a power saw, but you’ll need a hacksaw to cut it if you must do it by hand. For cutting the holes, you will also need a keyhole or saber saw. You’ll also need a hammer for nailing small brads, a file for smoothing cut edges of aluminum and finishing tools.

Here is how it would be done:

Cut the side panels an even sixteen inches high but only fifteen and one fourth inch wide (to leave room for the corner posts). Cut the bottoms approximately fifteen and three eighths inch square (before cutting, double-check this dimension on an assembled box; it can vary slightly).

Glue sides into corner posts with white glue or a wall-paneling mastic. Use white glue liberally; use mastic sparingly. Secure the bottom to the sides with glue and three fourths inch decorative-head brads. File down all sharp corner post edges.

You can cut the large holes before or after assembling the box cubes. If necessary, strengthen the plywood above the holes with strips of hardwood, glued to the inside. Then just paint the box cubes in colors that you think your child would like; the cheery colors are mostly a child’s favorite.

There is also an alternative way to making this box cubes:

If you can’t find those aluminum corner posts, you can make the cubes like these. Cut them from one half inch plywood (as with the other box cubes, you can make three cubes from one four by eight feet sheet of plywood; seven cubes from two sheets).

Use glue and 1d finishing nails to hold the simple butt joints. Then cut the holes in the sides of the box cubes with a saber saw or keyhole saw; putty and sand all corners, edges, and joints. After finishing you can then go ahead and paint the box cubes.

There is nothing much when it comes to decorating all you need is some creativity, space and the right tool. Look how easy it is to create these lovely box cubes for storage or play area; your children will appreciate this new space.

Sources:

Brody, A. L., and Marsh, K, S., “Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology”, John Wiley & Sons, 1997, ISBN 0-471-06397-5

http://www.packagingsource.co.za Gift Boxes Manufacturing