It’s my dearest wish,when I purchase a product that its container will serve the purpose not only to display the product in the store, but also function to store and organize the product in my studio.  Display packaging is made to be beautiful and most of all efficient. Most of the time, however, the packaging is NOT useful for in-home use. But today I’m sharing a simple fix to a container that stores and displays the PEBEO High Viscosity Paints, beautifully!

While you may not have this product, this pictorial is meant to provide inspiration for thinking outside the box when it comes to packaging.

The Pebeo High Viscosity Paints that I purchased came in a long flat pack. Truly beautiful packaging, it was also quite efficient. The paints were stored in a hard shell tray, inside of this cardboard sleeve. The window doesn’t show several of the tubes at the top.

The first thing I did, was remove the tray to look at it. The lids of the paints snapped in lightly and the paints were tilted at an angle.  If I left the package at this angle, the paints were likely to remain inside the tray – with a little help.

So I cut the outer cardboard sleeve, leaving the colored ‘caps’ on the packaging showing, exposing the ends of the tubes, but leaving the lids a bit under wraps.

Because the cardboard is in essence a sleeve, I used clear packing tape along the edges to add stability to the new shape. I wrapped the edges, creasing them along the existing corners to make it stronger.

Along the inside of the upper back portion of the sleeve, I attached a metal loop with a mini-brad; taping the mini-brad down with packing tape inside the sleeve; once again to add strength and stability. A loop of wire or twine would have served this purpose as well.

I taped off both ends with the clear packing tape to close up the sleeve, bending a bit of the cut-away sleeve around the end for stability. Finally, I added a strip of slightly elastic lace ribbon, along the cap side of the tubes; just as an insurance against their falling out. I made sure to leave the color keyed packaging on the tubes unobscured by my lace.

Now it’s hung up on my display panel with a Command Strips hook. I can take the whole thing down to work with, or remove a tube at a time.

So with very little waste, I’ve been able to turn display packaging into storage.

Is organizing on your list of goals for 2016? I have an entire category of blog posts on that subject. I’d love to hear what you are working on! Happy New Year!