That's a great idea! I'll load my shower full of Hermes boxes and skip showering for a year or so until I figure out what to do with them. (They are classy though. For a box.)

Or you could buy a bunch of cheap boxes at a crafts store, spray paint them orange, and fake it...

But boxes like this are pure magic!

Um, yeah. My nice-looking box collection comes from IKEA and the dollar store...

But they are nice... for boxes.

I like the look, they're very nice boxes.
And to "veslabeachgirl" Kevin Sharkey just stored them in his shower for a party. I believe they used it to show the boxes, not a decorating idea.

...but they're just boxes. I'm all about pretty storage, but designer boxes? I just don't get it. They look like ordinary orange boxes to me.

This may also be coming from my place of hatred for the colour orange.

I have noticed a shift in apartment therapy over the past few months, with a lot of casual references to luxury items like Hermes boxes and a "small" pied-a-terre in Chelsea. Is the website shifting it's demographic towards the upscale readership?

Yeah, when I become a millionaire, I'll do that. Or, actually, I'll give some of my extra cash to a good charity and use interesting found and crafted boxes instead. Sheesh.

this may be the weirdest post I've ever seen on AT.

Tiffany blue boxes are also lovely, but I know, orange is the color of the moment.

But I'm so glad that this post exists...if only for the giggles. Seriously, I can't even bring myself to pooh pooh this post for being so pretentious because the comments are so darn funny!

I appreciate getting an inside look on set-dressing a room. I've only given them a passing glance and assumed they were orange boxes from Office Depot or Container Store.

This post made me think of this quote by Coco Chanel: "Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity."

These boxes are a wonderful color and,since they come in many different sizes, are great for storing various things in a nice way. However, I find using them as a prop to imply luxury to be vulgar. I guess I expected better from AT

I would normally agree that this is a stupid post, but...

I have a small hermes box that came with a bracelet I was given, and it is not only beautiful, but excellent quality. It has held up very well for years. But still, I only use it for holding the bracelet. I wouldn't think of using it as a prop. A bit too showy. And those boxes shown above aren't exactly a shape or size that is useful for storage.

@MichaelF and @saraband

Agreed, this place is becoming very posh. Too posh for me. Very pretentious and ostentatious.

I mean come one, one Hermes scarf is 700$!!!! Who can afford that?

I've been doing this with my empty boxes from Tiffanys! I group a few together and tie them with their white ribbon....place on my night table....a gift to myself...again and again!

The boxes are pretty, and if you're using them to store your scarves, great, but shouldn't they be in your closet? To me, it just seems bizarre to stack up empty boxes as decoration - it feels akin to tacking up dustbags from handbags or filling your bookshelves with shoe boxes. It makes me think of 'Hoarders'.

Look - an affordable way to have lots of Hermes (just with the boxes haha)

Becca

I am so going out to buy some Hermes items just for the boxes...

I'm sure the orange box effect would be lost on me, if I did happen to stumble across a stack of these, because I've never seen one in my life, and probably never will.

I don't think the point of displaying these boxes would be simply to show off the boxes (though they do seem nice, as BOXES go). The point is to show off the fact that you can drop jillions of dollars on luxury goods, and you have the freaking boxes to prove it, and here they ALL are! The showiness is what seems vulgar to me, not the initial purchases.

(Although it'd be impossible for me to justify dropping $700 on a scarf even if I could, someday, by some miracle, afford it).

I just bought some nice bedding from dwell studio that came in a lovely zippered box. I reused it for my daughter's barbie dolls.

I think the boxes are nice to use for restoring items.

I think they are more effective at impressing in a status-symbol kind of way, as opposed to a purely aesthetic kind of way.

This post is icky. You know what nice boxes are good for though? Crisp cornered gift wrap. I have a Brooks Brother's shirt box that has been circulating for years!

Maybe I'm just in a forgiving mood today, but I don't see anything wrong with this post. I always save any nice boxes or bags that I get shopping, but I never really thought about displaying them. I have seen the orange Hermes boxes, as well as the blue Tiffany boxes used in decorating and I think it looks quite chic as long as it is an accent to the room. I don't really see what is so upscale about it, you can buy these boxes empty on eBay or just use a regular orange box. Simple as that.

I think those are beautiful boxes and a beautiful color. I can't imagine that having the boxes alone would be a vulgar display of wealth, as I'm betting most people (myself included), would have no clue that they were anything but just craft boxes! I think random boxes look silly, but used to store jewelry or office products is a lovely idea.

I think they are beautiful! I do not have any Hermes boxes myself, but that does not mean that someday I may treat myself to a Kelly bag.
I have LV boxes that I have kept from purse purchases, that are great for storage and maybe a little brown in a room.
If you are trashing this post, you are just jealous. The photos are amazing and it should help you to think "outside of the box". This site is about style and design. Be respectful.

I didn't think they were pretentious at all. Maybe because I had no idea what a Hermes box looked like. They look nice, though, as do many boxes from the Container Store. Plus, the Container Store boxes come in colors other than orange.

I don't understand why the strong, visceral reaction to displaying boxes? Or the "you can just get dollar store boxes and spray paint them" backhands? Just because one prefers to furnish a whole home, dishes and all, with mismatched items from Craigslist or Goodwill doesn't make them any more "aware" than the person who prefers to carry only Louis Vuitton luggage (bought new). When are we going to stop attacking people and A.T. for showing us different values? Is this site only worthy of viewing if it can show us how to turn a toilet paper roll into a nifty lamp? And isn't that lamp usually a stand in for something more expensive seen elsewhere, anyway? Oh, the piety...

Displaying a box on the foot of your bed is just weird to me. Sorry.

I like this post. Re-purposing is important (so is packaging reduction). Why not keep any kind of box out of the land fill?

In my house, I have one medium sized Hermes box (gift from a friend: tea cup and saucer inside) and one very small Tiffany box. I keep extra buttons in the Hermes box. The Tiffany box holds the "peace" charm when I'm not wearing it. I love looking at both of them when I open my closet! Orange and Tiffany-aqua are two of my favorite colors!

My tea-loving-friend's philosophy is that everyone (who loves tea) should have one really beautiful cup to drink from now and then (it doesn't have to Hermes, of course!).

@MsDonnaGirl, I agree AT should show a range high and low. I just think its odd to use the box as decoration to show off your purchases and I think that's what most people are responding to here. If you made an expensive shoe purchase would you put the box with the label on the middle of your coffee table for all your guests to see?

i sometimes keep store boxes that are well made. but to use the box as a design prop simply because it comes from a luxury store is to confuse status icons with design. the box is beautiful & all that but believe me they wouldn't be showing up in spaces if the exact same box was used at walmart or target.

MsDonnaGirl, I love your comment! AT should show a whole range of things from luxury to DIY and I appreciate both kinds of posts. Besides, I think the best homes have a nice mix of high and low end pieces.

my mom received a scarf from Hermes from someone very rich! lol...i took the box and used it to store pens and stuff on my desk.

Plus Hermes scarves start at $400 not $700 and I know the Toronto Bloor St location has an one day sale on scarves in the summer where all the proceeds go to charity. Also, if you are someone who wants to be 'green' you would know that most Hermes products are very high quality and I know people who have bags that are passed down from mother to daughter to the grandchild.

... because, you know, I buy so much Hermes I just don't know what to do with the boxes. *Yawn.*

I did the same thing in my bedroom with Tiffany boxes - love that color.

@Karlton Kelly- when I pay enough for an item, you can believe I keep everything, right down to the packaging. You may not see it on my coffee table, but it's probably somewhere getting a second life and being seen. Not so much the plastic Target bag. It may seem pretentious to some. To those who enjoy the whole experience of making a high-end purchase, its just another pleasure to have it come in such great packaging that you'd want to look at it over and over. And it reminds me that I've made an investment purchase in something that matters to me- no different than a couch that cost twice what I might consider paying for my whole living room set.

I meant a couch someone ELSE would pay twice the price of my whole living room set for, of course!

@MsDonnaGirl - I totally understand getting enjoyment from making the occasional luxury purchase - I do not in any way equate that with pretentiousness. In fact, I own a few Hermes items, and they are stored in their original boxes, but the boxes themselves stay in my closet - not on the middle of my bed or on my entry console for the world to see. That was the only point I was making. To me that is different from a couch. The scarf is the couch. The packaging is the packaging.

But I do agree with you and the other commenter that said that the best homes, just like the best wardrobes, should be comprised of a mix of high and low! I like high end every now and then and I like craigslist and ikea too.

"If you ever buy anything at Hermes"...(giggle)

Oh, I also love the boxes from Sophie Conran for Portmeirion tableware. They're a lovely sea foam green and the lids have brown speckles.

While a shower full for Hermes boxes is somewhat austentatious, repurposing these lovely and well made boxes is really a great idea.