Shoe Box Shelves With Cardboard Cheshire Cat Wall Art

These shelves are made from cardboard boxes cut into the wall to save space but once the hole was cut in the drywall I needed a way to cover the rough edges so I dreamed up a crazy way to make them look better. The process was pretty simple but very time-consuming. The best part of this project is it only requires a few materials and you can get them from your recycle bin. The first step is to cut a hole in the drywall between the wall studs and then fit cardboard boxes to fill the space.

• Brown corrugated cardboard
• Hot Glue
• Elmer's Glue
• 18" Plastic Ruler
• Brown Packing Paper
• Mod Podge
• Shoe Boxes
• Dremel or other drywall cutting tool
• Small Paint Brush
• Sharpie

I didn't like the wall color or the wallpaper so I painted and repapered the walls before I started.

Next, I used a sharpie marker to sketch a rough design on the wall. I have an Alice in Wonderland theme in the room so I decided to add the Chesire Cat. Because I like to recycle materials and since the shelves were made from recycled shoe boxes I decided to make the design from cardboard as well. I spent several hours cutting corrugated cardboard into 1/2 strips and many more hours gluing the cardboard to the wall using a combination of Elmer's glue and hot glue.

To finish the cardboard box shelves I used brown packing paper and Mod Podge to paper mache the finish. The paper is torn into small 2 x 2 inch pieces and then applied to the cardboard with the Mod Podge and a small paintbrush.

For the last step, I used some different paint colors to finish the design.

You can watch the project come together in this time-lapse video.