Stair Basket on my $0 budget - Organizing my life one step at a time

If you are anything like my family, you always have a pile of stuff sitting on your stairs to either go up or go down. I have always wanted to have a basket that sits on my stairs but I am far to cheap to spend $40 on a small wicker step/stair basket. So I came up with this idea yesterday when I was at the grocery store picking up fresh fruits and vegetables. Isn't it great! Look what you can do with a free pasta box, duct tape, left over fabric and Mod Podge. 

Before

 After

Materials:

1 Box with the width and height you want

Fabric to cover

Mod Podge

Duct Tape

Method:
We removed the clear packing tape from the bottom of the box so it could be laid flat.

We measured my stair height (approx. 8 inches) and depth (approx. 12 inches). Using a long metal ruler we drew straight lines on the box to identify where the 'step' piece would be. Do this on both sides of the box..be sure to work on the same end :)

Here is a bit of a tricky part, I only made 3 cuts on each side of the box (see picture below - I made cuts along the bold black lines and I folded along the dotted line) so that I could fold the box  and keep most of the box intact to create the bottom and side of the 'step' part.

Here is where you just have to trust me and work with this as you go. This is hard for me to explain which means it will be even more difficult to understand. But believe me it is easy when you are doing it. The 2 folded pieces come together to create the back of the step, the 2 bottom flaps come up to also cover the back of the step and then there is a long piece on the end of the box that folds up to create the bottom of the 'step' piece. Now that I have lost everyone here is what it looks like after the first 2 steps.

And this is after all the folds and I duct taped the seams to secure it.

 I removed the top flaps of the box because I did not need any extra height. If you box is not high enough, you can use the top flaps for this.

Making the shape of the stair basket, took me about 10 minutes to do. But the next step of covering it with fabric took me almost 2 hours! I didn't have much of this fabric left over from recovering my kitchen chairs so I had to plan wisely. It really wasn't difficult as I used Mod Podge to secure the fabric to the box but the planning took me forever.  I used some left over black vinyl for the bottom of the box so that it wouldn't show any dirt (plus I didn't want to use more of the fabric since I might want to use it on something else later).

So here is the end result from all angles. My carpets look really dirty but they aren't..honestly it is the lighting.

 By the way, someone recommended that I host a $0 craft party at the end of the month so everyone can post their $0 ideas. I have never done a party before...Is anyone interested in participating in this? Please let me know what you think.



Thanks,
Stephanie