Kitty Bartholomew, host of HGTV's Kitty Bartholomew: You're Home, shows how to make a decorative "trunk" from a cardboard box. Covered with fabric and outfitted with real trunk hardware, a fool-the-eye cardboard trunk looks like the real thing. This kind of storage unit works especially well for large items that are too heavy or cumbersome to be easily stowed after use. Large items can be covered with an open-ended box that slips over the top. To make a box look like a trunk, Kitty used pieces of foam board -- attached with double-sided adhesive -- to form a lip on the trunk and covered the box in fabric. There are several ways to cover a box with fabric. The least expensive is to attach fabric to the box with spray adhesive. The adhesive is sprayed on the cardboard, and the fabric is smoothed in place. HeatnBond® iron-on adhesive, available in strips or sheets, is another option for attaching the fabric. To attach fabric to cardboard or foam board with HeatnBond, cut the adhesive to fit the shape of the fabric. Place it shiny side down on the wrong side of the fabric (figure A), then fuse it to the fabric by pressing with an iron (figure B). Peel the HeatnBond backing off the fabric (figure C), place the fabric on the cardboard or foam board, and iron in place (figure D). Kitty covered a piece of stick-on foam board with fabric, using HeatnBond. When the front of the piece was covered, she clipped the excess fabric at the corners and ironed the fabric hem to the back of the foam board. The foam-board panel was then set in place on the trunk. Hardware, including metal corner pieces and a lock (figure E), may be attached to the trunk with a glue gun or crafter's cement.
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