I can’t afford an Original Scrapbox 😢 & IKEA

Who else is following The Original Scrapbox on Instagram?  Me too. I’m always shamelessly recommending myself for a Scrapbox in their “refer a friend” promotions. I don’t see one in my future unless I win one, but not discouraged, I thought I might come up with my cheap and cheerful version, because I’m realizing I need more storage.

The IKEA Billy cabinet was a good fit since there are already two in my sewing area housing my cookbooks. My brother cut some oak plywood shelves, and I set to applying the banding on the front edge and painted them white. The paint is Sherwin Williams Pure White.

The shelf pins were a bit of a challenge, they aren’t a standard size. Lowe’s carried a pin that was 3mm on one side and 5mm on the other. The 5mm are too large, 3mm are too small but that is the side I’m using.  They are a little loose but the ridge in the center of the pin slips between the shelf edge and the bookcase side, so it works.

7 shelves were added to one bookcase, there could have been more, but my die machine on the bottom needed more space as well as the stripped featherweight case on the top.  I might have gotten 10 additional shelves in total, but there are areas where the predrilled holes don't allow you to space equally.  They force a taller spacing because the back shelf holes are missing.

The clear boxes here are found in the Ikea bathroom department, they're called Godmorgon.   I didn't think I would use the smaller boxes, but they have all been put in use.

In case you are thinking about storing all of your featherweights in a Billy, check your case  width.  The stripped version is from 1930's, my later cases do not fit.  The older case here is a touch over 13" in width, the later versions are 14 5/8".  These are the 221 cases, not sure what the 222 are, since I sold mine a few years back.  The featherweights will fit, if they are removed from the cases.

We'll talk about my quilt show purchases next..... so difficult with all that temptation!!