Toy Box Redo: Plain to Punchy

I had this really great vintage toy box from my childhood nursery, but the stark white seemed too blah. I thought about painting it, but they don't make no-VOC spray paint, so that was kind of out. Then I remembered reading about applying fabric to walls with liquid starch and thought why not try it on the toy box?


It worked like a dream! Super easy to apply and virtually goof-proof, since it's easy to adjust when wet.

Here's how to do it:

- Get some liquid starch (available at any grocery store)
- Apply with a paintbrush directly to the fabric and then apply wet fabric to hard surface.
- Smooth it out with your hands to remove any wrinkles or air bubbles and adjust position if needed
- Do another layer of starch over it with the brush again.

The best part is that it's easy to remove without damaging either the fabric or the item underneath.


I loved how it worked out so much I took the leftover scraps and carefully cut out the shapes and applied them to the wall to add some design to my new peach paintjob. I didn't like the positions of a few of the shapes on the wall, so I just peeled them off and reapplied the same way - no mess or damage at all! You can even wash the fabric to reuse for something else later. The ultimate recycling project;) I wish I'd have learned about this trick years ago when I fiddled around with messy stencils and stamps as wall art - they never turned out half as nice either.

Why would anyone want to mess with damaging decals, wallpaper or glue when you can easily do this and save a lot of time & headache in both the applying & removing? If only we'd had this on the walls instead of the nightmarish wallpaper & layer upon layer of glue that was in every room when we moved into our house!