Upcycling a Vintage Magazine Holder as Stencil Storage

One of my craft room organization conundrums is stencil storage: How to organize and store all my reusable stencils that accumulate over time? Finally, I had an upcycling idea (or maybe epiphany). What if I upcycled a vintage magazine holder into a file tote for stencil storage?

And lo and behold, I already had a vintage magazine rack in my garage. I had thrifted this one a couple of years ago and it had been sitting in my garage waiting patiently for an idea.

The magazine rack was already beat up when I bought it- with flaking veneer, missing knobs, and other assorted ailments. And two years of garage life hadn’t done it much good, either- so it was high time I brought it out from the shadows. 

I had also found some vintage file folders while thrifting, too. Specifically, some longer legal-sized hanging file folders. And they would be perfect for holding stencils in my file tote.

All I needed to do was give it a proper makeover and get my stencils in order!

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Upcycling a Vintage Magazine Holder

First things first, I had to clean it up and give it a “dust-scrubbing”, because the dust had seemingly fused with the wood.

How does that even happen?

Once it was relatively clean, I then set up my spray paint station, grabbed a can of white paint, and gave it a fresh makeover.

I gave the magazine holder two coats of paint over the course of a day, when the unthinkable happened.

A bird had pooped on my freshly painted magazine holder!

I mean, COME ON! On fresh white paint, no less. Thank goodness for disinfectant and yet another coat of paint!

Things can only go up from here- so let’s get back to it.

Sanitized and re-painted, I could now focus on the two pressed cane panels. I had three options: (1) leave it as is, (2) cross stitch on it with yarn, or (3) paint it a different color.

I decided to go with Door #3 and choose a dark metallic silver to make the cane kinda-sorta look like a metal grate for my file tote.

First, I started using a regular paint brush, but quickly realized that one of my stencil brushes was a MUCH better choice!

Swirling and stippling gave the cane a slightly weathered, roughed up industrial look.

Stencil Storage for My Craft Room

I was quite pleased with the end result and set it aside to thoroughly dry.

Now I could pair up my file folders with my freshly upcycled magazine rack to use it as a file tote!

Of course, not ALL of my vinyl stencils would fit in the file folders, but the majority of them could!

Stencil storage has plagued me for a while now…how to keep them flat and organized without taking up a ton of room.

After sorting my stencils into categories, I made some simple labels, fixed them to the file folders, and plopped everything in the file tote!

Upcycling a Vintage Magazine Holder as Stencil Storage

The hanging folders were simply the perfect length for the magazine holder. I also used a block of wood in the center to push the folders flat, so that they stood up straight.

My portable file tote really is perfect for stencil storage! My reusable stencils are flat and orderly – what more could I ask for?

But a file tote like this (from a magazine rack) has all kinds of organization possibilities. I could see this used for scrapbook paper or card stock in a craft room…or organizing recipe pages from magazines, etc. In fact, my friend, Gail, at My Repurposed Life, puts her upcycled magazine rack to all sorts of good purposes in her post here!

Either way, I LOVE it!! And now I don’t have to worry about those reusable stencils getting bent or lost.

If you enjoyed this upcycling idea for craft room storage, then you’ll love these craft organizers from the thrift store, as well!

Craft on!

S

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