DIY Wooden Box Wall Shelf + My New Favorite Power Tool

Across the board, my biggest goal when it comes to DIY projects is speed. I am looking to get in and get out with as little time invested, but with a cleverly crafted product or room makeover to show for it. A lot of that comes down to strategy in terms of the methods and materials I use, but I also have to carefully consider the tools I use.

Today’s quick DIY Wooden Box Wall Shelf project—done in partnership with WORX—is the perfect example of getting high impact results without sacrificing hours and hours in order to make your vision a reality. Details on how to make the project for yourself, plus my new favorite dual purpose drill are below!

• WORX 20V Switchdriver Cordless Drill & Driver
• 2 screws
• 1 wooden box
• 1 sheet of scrapbook paper
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Double-sided tape

The ultimate goal behind this wall shelf concept was to attach a plain wooden box to the wall on its side so that both the interior and top planes of the box could be used to store and show off items as my whims change. But since the plain wooden box that I picked up from the craft store was, well…plain, I decided to dress it up with a sheet of patterned scrapbook paper pressed into the back of the box. This step would not only add character to the box, but would cover up the screw heads, too. Win-win!

While browsing the scrapbook paper aisle of our local craft store, I chose three patterns as options to test out at home with the wooden box I planned to use. Although I loved the gold and white iridescent paper and the large hearts, the scale of both turned out to be a bit off for my pint-sized painted wooden furniture. The smaller confetti hearts pattern was the perfect fit.

To cut the scrapbook paper to size, I laid it on my craft table with the box on top. Then, I traced around the edges of the box onto the paper with a pencil and cut along my traced lines with a pair of scissors.

Because the interior edge of the box was about 3/4-inch in from the side panels, I trimmed the excess paper away until the paper slipped into the box along the back surface without trouble. Once the paper is cut to size, remove it from the box and set it aside until the final step.

Now for the power tool. In order to attach the box to the wall, I needed to first drill small pilot holes into the back panel of the box and into the drywall, and then change my drill from a bit to a phillips head driver for the mounting screws.

With my old drill, this would mean having to add the drill bit to my chuck, drill the holes, remove the bit and add the phillips head driver to my drill before I could attach the hardware. But with my new WORX Switchdriver, everything is ready to go because of the rotating pair of chucks, which makes switching between them a cinch—and, trust me, that I’m not spouting out PR lingo here. I would never claim to call this my next favorite power tool unless it really was. It’s pure genius! See below for the quick animation that I created to demonstrate just how simple it is to add both the driver and the bit all at once.

The final phase of the project after drilling my two pilot holes in the box was to hold it up on the wall where I wanted to hang it. I used a level to make sure it was even, and then pushed a pencil through the pilot holes to mark the wall. I set the box aside and, with the bit still on the front of the drill, I pre-drilled holes into the drywall for the screws.

Finally, I turned the chuck around so that my driver was on the front of the drill, and then I screwed the pair of screws through the pre-drilled holes of the box into the pre-drilled holes on the drywall.

To finish once and for all, I added strips of double sided tape to the back of my trimmed piece of scrapbook paper, and pushed it into the box to cover the screw heads and back panel of the box itself. After smoothing the paper down with my fingertips, the wall shelf was officially done.

In the end, this project took about 25 minutes to complete from trimming my scrapbook paper to attaching the box to the wall—not too shabby for a pretty art-slash-organization project that I can hang in any room in our house! I can see this styled with spices in the kitchen, beauty products in the bathroom, or even jewelry in our bedroom.

In case you’re dying to try out this power tool for yourself, you’re in luck! I partnered with WORX to give away one Switchdriver to a DGD reader. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post telling us where you would hang your own wooden box wall shelf and what you’d put in it, and then follow WORX on Facebook, Twitter, OR Instagram by clicking those links. You must do both to be eligible! The contest is open to US residents only and runs until midnight on Monday, July 4. The winner will be announced following the holiday on Tuesday, July 5. Good luck!