Easy DIY projects: Upcycling a toy box

Who doesn’t love weekend DIY projects? Oh yeah, that’s right – sane people who like to relax after a week of hard work. Well, luckily I’m not one of those. I decided instead on upcyling a toy box for my son’s bedroom.

The good news is that it’s pretty easy and not too time consuming. Hooray – there might be a little time for relaxing after all (have a glass of wine on stand by to celebrate).

I had some leftover wallpaper and chalk paint, I thought it would be a great way to give J’s toy box a makeover, use up the paper and tie it in nicely with the decor.  

If you’ve visited my blog before you might know that I’m in the middle of a dinosaur themed bedroom makeover for my 4-year old son. I’ll give you a quick update on the project if you’re interested – otherwise skip the next paragraph to crack on with upcycling a toy box.

Boy’s bedroom update

Well the good news is that all the painting and wallpapering is done! The bad news is that I’ve realised how grim the carpet is now that the walls are looking all fresh and clean. So it looks like we’ll have to replace the carpet and this is holding up the project slightly, as now we have to choose carpet and wait for it to be fitted. I’ve been sharing the progress over on Instagram stories, so do follow me over there if you don’t already.

Shall we get started on upcycling the toy box now? Alrighty then…

Easy DIY Projects: Upcyling a toy box with a chalk paint and wallpaper

You will need:

• Chalk paint (I used Rust-oleum chalk paint in Anthracite*)
• Paintbrush
• Wallpaper (Arthouse Dinosaur doodles*)
• Wallpaper paste
• Paste brush
• Scissors
• Toy box (similar here*)

Tutorial:

1# The toy box I was using had indented panels on each side, so I measured each side panel and then I cut the wallpaper to size. The front panel was longer than the wall panel, so I cut two sections that would match up and ensure that the pattern is continuous (just like you would on the wall). Then double-check to make sure they fit easily and trim if necessary.

If your toy box doesn’t have indented panels, decide how thick you want the borders to be, double it and then deduct it from the total width and length of each side to calculate the size to cut your wallpaper. With a pencil mark out where your wallpaper should be positioned.

I decided to leave one of the long sides  free of wallpaper and paint it instead, so that I could switch up the look if I wanted too.

2# Paint the toy box. The thing I love about chalk paint is that there is virtually no prep required. Simply ensure that the toy box is clean and then get to work painting. I painted the whole toy box (even though I only really needed to paint the bits that would be on show, but I got a bit carried away). Leave to dry as per the instructions on your paint.

Once it’s dried, re-coat if necessary, thankfully the paint I used looked great after one coat.

3# Apply wallpaper paste to the back of the wallpaper shapes you have cut. Adhere to the corresponding side of your toy box. If any wallpaper paste gets onto your paintwork just wipe it away quickly with a slightly damp sponge. Then leave to dry!

And here’s the finished upcyling project!

Shop the post*

Want some more easy DIY projects? Come right this way and feast your eye’s on these little beauties.

How about more dinosaur themed DIY? Check out this cool Dinosaur terrarium I made.

If you love DIY projects, let me know in the comments!  

The links marked with a * are affiliate links. Meaning that I provide links to products which I genuinely recommend. If you happen to make a purchase, then I may gain a small commission (at no extra cost to you). You get a handy link to the product you’re after – I get a few pennies towards running this awesome blog. Win-win! 

Pin this for later?