If there's anything we have too many of in our apartment, it's magazines and plants. So we solved the problem by re-purposing six magazines (and that's all you need—no glue or scissors required!) into this plant stand. It took about ten minutes. Here's how:
We were inspired by a project done by our friend Erica. She has the coolest job of anyone we know: she crafts and does the store design for Anthropologie. We snapped the photos below when we visited her home in Portland, Oregon. She was working on the idea at that point, and then the vintage books popped up in stores a few months later.
The concept is similar to cardboard furniture. It's amazing how sturdy the paper can be when it involves multiple layers. We were thinking a single magazine could work as a wall shelf...let me know if anyone tries it or if you have any other uses!
What You Need
Materials
Old magazines. That's it!
Instructions
1 Pull out any subscription cards from inside the magazine. (And subscribe if you like it—it's so much cheaper than buying off the newsstand!)
2 Flip open the magazines and leave the cover out to the left. Thumb through (about) ten pages, then fold them in half towards you, tucking the page ends back towards the binding. The crease should be on the right side, and the loose ends should be on the top.
3 Repeat for the entire magazine, including the back cover. (It's okay to vary the number of pages a little, so don't worry about counting them.)
4 Fold the cover to the right, over the first crease, and tuck it in towards the binding to secure the folded pages. You'll have a semi-circle fan shape.
5 Repeat for any other magazines. Place them back to back, with the flat sides together. If you're stacking two on top of each other, rotate the second layer a few degrees so that they stack like bricks, and not directly on top of each other. This will make them more stable.
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I really dig the ones made from vintage books. Can you give instructions for those too?
thanks!
WOW! That's Awesome! Thanks!
She does have the coolest job!
Really wonderful idea.
Wanted to suggest, too, for old mags, to take them to the gym for others to enjoy or a hospital lobby, especially those inner city ones. There's a lot of families who have time on their hands and in need of a distraction while their loved one is being treated. Am sure lots of you are doing this kind of thing already, but it can't hurt to put it out there some more...
Considering the vast number of old magazines I have that I haven't wanted to throw away, this is a great, great concept. Add a table top, and noone will ever know that your table is made of last month's Vogue! I love it :)
OK...downer alert!
I feel bad criticizing this as I am a big fan of re-using items and craft in general, but....I find this aesthetically hideous!
Very Creative!
Too funny.
This reminds me of an old craft project my mother used to do when we were kids. Take a fat Simpsons/Eatons catalogue, start folding each page down to make a perfect triangle with the bottom of the page acting as one angle. Do this to EVERY PAGE. You will eventually have a cone. Spray paint this gold or green.
There is your Christmas tree.
Whew.
Hi Maya B
Erica tells me that it's the same concept, but that she cut the covers out. Happy crafting!
I tried this idea and it turned out great! I used paper clips to secure the folded pages because they would come loose once I stacked them. I placed the finished magazine product in a tall, large vase and placed a tray on top of it. I did two of these and put it in my guest bedroom as side tables. I had a couple of friends over and they thought that it was so cool. I'm thinking that I might spray paint the magazines to make it even more interesting. Very cool and easy project though. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of my 100 magazines;-)
I LOVE the end table idea. Anyone know where I could get tall vases large enough?
That's really cool, it'll give me a useful thing to do with all the old magazines I horde. I wonder, though, how do you attach the two magazines together to create the full circle?
I would love some pictures along with this tutorial!
You could use a hot glue gun to glue the spines of the two magazines together. It would make it a little more stable.
Very Cool
I think you need four mags to make a complete fanned table. I used 2 Vanity Fair and 2 Dwell
Love it
Peter Knockstead
Washington DC
"thumb threw" ? ? ?
Who edits this stuff? You threw out the trash last night. You would thumb through a few pages.
Honestly, who edits and hires these bloggers?
I chuckled when I read that, King.
I just grabbed a few old mags and tried this out, too simple really. I stuck one next to my bed that previously had no side table (platform bed with drawers) and another in my entryway with a few coasters on top to level the surface, pretty cute, actually. My apartment is quirky so the idea fits, thanks for the inspiration!
camellialan and terrywinkle are SPAMBOTS.
Delete them quickly!
Great idea! I've been wondering what to do with ALL of these magazines...
Ella Kelly; did a variation on that: sears catalog & Reader's Digests when a kid to help (meaning only the folding) mom make Christmas carolers. After every page folded, spray painted red & styro ball for head etc.
I was looking for some ways to reuse old magazines, and I'm glad I found this post. Such a great idea! I tried it out and blogged about it here: http://upcycles.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/how-to-use-old-magazines-to-make-an-end-table/