DIY Garage lockers or Cubbies

 I saw this SUPER cute pin on pinterest about this adorable storage that she handmade.  AMAZING!  So this is my inspiration.

http://www.chalkboardblue.com/2012/08/how-i-built-our-pottery-barn-lockers.html

My hubby printed out the building plans, we planned and stewed. . . 

Finally this is what we ended up with:

We didn't have the time to build our own from scratch.  So we saw the plain old white storage cabinets at Home Depot and decided to just go that route.  So if you aren't super handy and you want them to be able to stand alone this might be a choice for you.  There are THREE cabinets here at about $100 each.    I found some metal numbers at a steal at this dumpy place ;)  they didn't even have a 1 so I cut off a 7 and touched it up a bit. :)

The inside we love the storage it adds (AND HIDES!)  we used some wire racks that I previously been using for shoe storage and used zip ties to connect them all together and make shelves for the shoes.  it was a PERFECT FIT!  We added a few hooks for back packs and a board to separate the two girls' spaces.  Each person gets a number.

The DOWN side is that the shoes start to stink up our "lockers" so ventilation might be a good idea.  I am considering drilling holes in the back or something. :)   But I LOVE everything else about it.  In fact i have an extra long garage and so this acts as a fake wall and I hide a lot of storage behind it.  (Behind them are some heavy duty shelves which I think is good for extra support.)  

***Obviously not a staged picture***this is real life people!****

But I wasn't fully in love yet.  They were not near as cute as my inspiration.  I searched for hardware and hinges.  EXPENSIVE.  For garage storage?  Yeah, not for me.  Soooo  I took off the handles spray painted them black and put them back on with little vinyl stickers I designed to make them look like fancy handles.  Then I designed some vinyl hinges too!  I love the final finished product!  Makes me smile every time I pull into my garage to see a little bit of cuteness. :)

It has been almost 6 months that the handles have been spray painted.  I used some cheap $1 spray paint and there are a few scratches where it has come off a little.  Not really very noticeable though.  Perhaps next time if I will spray paint with a "designed for plastic" spray paint.