Make your own memory box tabletop—no tools required
By Jess Chamberlain, Sunset home & design writer
Who doesn’t love finding new uses for Ikea products? I’m thinking of submitting this to Ikea Hacker.
This memory box tabletop project appears in our November issue (on newsstands—or your mail box—soon).
Though it doesn’t quite feel like fall in San Francisco—I almost needed SPF yesterday—it’s a perfect time to make beautiful use of mementos from your summer travels. Or, where it does already feel like fall, start collecting those curbside leaves and celebrate, and frame, nature.
The story features the following instructions and the final photo at left, but I took some process shots while I was making it, and thought they’d be helpful:
----
Turn a basic side table and a picture frame into a living-room accent worth remembering.
1. Choose a picture frame that's at least 1 3/4 inches deep and just smaller than your tabletop, preferably of the same color and material. Replace glass with abrasion-resistant plastic. 
2. Center the frame on your table. With a pencil, mark where the corners of the frame meet the tabletop. Set frame aside. 
3. Carefully adhere one sticky-back piece of Velcro (rougher half) a few inches inside each marked corner on the tabletop.
4. Adhere the opposing strips at corresponding points on the frame backing.
5. Remove backing and set frame aside. Secure mementos or seasonal elements to backing with glue dots or tape.
Special kudos here to fellow crafter (and senior designer) Monica Ewing who partnered with me to style this, and often is kind enough to let me use some of her serene desk space to spread out Jess-projecting.
6. Carefully resecure backing into frame (keeping frame right side up) and position onto tabletop so Velcro strips align. Use plastic cleaner or dish soap with cotton towels to clean frame top as needed.
Resources: Ribba extra-deep 19-inch square frame ($20) and Lack side table ($13) from Ikea (ikea.com or 800/434-4532). Velcro sticky-back strips (velcro.com) available at hardware stores. Abrasion-resistant 1/8-inch plastic for tabletop from TAP Plastics ($12 per square foot; tapplastics.com or 800/246-5055).
Eeek! I love this!
Posted by: jan | October 10, 2007 at 02:17 PM
Oh my goodness, this is fabulous! I am obsessed with shadow/memory boxes and I have more memories & trinkets than boxes to fill.
Posted by: Anne | October 10, 2007 at 02:36 PM