Decorating my wooden Ikea magazine files

I recently posted a craft of which I was very proud - my Ikea wooden drawers - which I upcycled by painting and covering with patterned paper. It fitted in with decorating our downstairs study which is now pale pink and houses a computer and desk instead of Playmobil. At the same time as I bought the drawers, years ago when we bought our first flat, I also bought some wooden file boxes. They are quite similar to the Knuff magazine files which are now available, but mine have silver label holders instead of a hole in the back.

I originally purchased these magazine files with the intention of painting or decorating them in some way, but I never got around to it and they have sat their in the plain unfinished state for years. After the success of the wooden drawers I decided it was time to freshen them up a bit. I was a bit daunted by having the empty them out - they are mainly used to store things that I want to keep like old school reports, programmes from festivals that I attended, old leaflets and ephemera that I like to hold on to. But it was also a chance to have a trip down memory lane and a bit of a sort out while I was there!

I gave each file two coats of paint, using the same matt emulsion that we used on the study walls - Dulux Blossom White - which is more pink than white. Two coats were definitely needed, and I painted all down the sides even though only the back will actually be visible.

The old labels had become rather faded, so I replaced them with some new ones, handwritten onto white card. Then I finished each one off with a strip of washi tape along the bottom. I have some lovely washi tape with musical notes on which I used for the folders of sheet music and musical theatre related ephemera, then I used some co-ordinating tape for the other files.

The washi tape is so easy to reposition if you get it wrong, and if I want to update the magazine files in the future it will be easy to remove it and repaint. I love how they now all match, and they now fit in really well with our new, lighter study.