10 Brilliant Ideas For Repurposing Brie Boxes For Home Storage And Decor

Tell time with the help of a round cheese box. Use one to ring in the seasons. Upcycle another to store sewing supplies. Even spin one into a twirling top. Soft cheeses like brie and camembert can make for a fantastic addition to your grazing board, act as a star ingredient in an appetizer, or bring a creamy touch to a delicious sandwich. They also typically come in darling lidded boxes that are often made of durable wood or thick cardboard.

You can't toss wooden containers in the recycling bin, so short of using them as fireplace kindling, what's to be done with these containers? Even paperboard cheese boxes are popping with potential for reuse. Save space in your bins by morphing a cheese box or two into one or more adorable and useful items we've assembled here. If, God forbid, you're not a cheese lover, many of these DIYs can be adapted as ways to reuse your plastic containers.

Their round shape, convenient size, and durability make upcycling them a no-brainer. Spruce one up with paint or decoupage for storage of unsightly daily necessities, snip one into a pocket and hang it up as wall decor, or convert it into a seasonal decoration that's sure to impress. Just grab some scissors, glue, and a few other materials to start you on a repurposing adventure.

There are scads of things we need on hand but don't necessarily want laying around. Keep items like coasters, twist ties, and hair accessories easily accessible in an attractive way. Decorate a cheese box with decoupage, and observers will never guess the box's humble origins. Purchase and print out images from a website, repurpose old magazines, or immortalize scrapbook-worthy bits of paper. Give the box a few layers of paint and overlay the lid with one image, or cover the entire surface with images that bring you joy.

One convenient feature of both a cheese box and the lid are their projected edges. Hung on a wall, their lip edges extend far enough from the base to serve as a tiny shelf for you to display your fall decor on a budget. Give both halves a coat of paint in a festive color, glue decorative pieces to the lowest point on the lip, and adorn the edges with colorful trim. Hang them from a wall with a hook attached to their backs, or string decorative cord through holes in the top lip for a visible hanger that adds flair. 

Whip up a functional or just fabulous hanging wall pocket from a cheese box. Trim away half of a cheese box lid's face, and decorate both the lid and the base with your fabric, paint, or decoupage of choice. Replace the lid, add a ribbon around the circumference with enough excess to create a handle, and hang it from a hook on your wall or door. Fill the pocket with dried or faux flowers and greenery to add a pop of color and texture to your home's decor.

Clock making kits are easy to find and don't cost much, so it's surprisingly simple to create your own piece of time-telling decor using an old cheese box as a base. Stencil numbers onto the face, cut digits from magazine pages ransom-note-style, or leave the face free of numbers. Once everything is prepped, poke a hole in the center of the face and attach the clock hardware. Install a wire on the back to hang it on a wall, or lean it against a mini easel for a clock ready for any flat surface.

Crafty folks often need several different containers to accommodate all of their sewing paraphernalia. Line a larger cheese box with fabric. Cut a strip of fabric that matches the box's inner circumference and a bit wider than the box's depth. Fold over and stitch both edges so that the fabric won't fray. Glue one edge of the fabric to the bottom inside edge. Add vertical dots of glue at points along the inner sides of the container to form small pockets. Slip small items inside the pockets, and reserve the center for spools, scissors and seam rippers.

We often think of toy tops as only for kids, but these spinnable objects can be a great fidget tool for anyone with bored hands. Make one for a human of any age from a cheese box. Decorate the interior with a design that looks cool when it's spinning, like a spiral or a mandala. If that sounds difficult to make, cut a circle from an adult coloring page. Poke a hole in the very center, attach a spinning top kit or a small pointed object like a golf tee held with glue, and give it a spin.

Few of us can avoid seeing a snow globe without shaking it up for the sheer thrill. Clever TikToker @jessiekatzgreenberg morphed a brie box into a waterless snow globe. They traced the lid onto a piece of thin transparent plastic, and after cutting out the plastic circle, they cut and pasted parts of a snowy scene onto the lid. After adding a few sprinkles of loose wintry glitter and beads to the surface, they finished off the snow globe with the layer of plastic and a bit of trim.

A decorative cheese box looks like standard storage, but instead it hides a string of book pages within. Custom-decorate the box's exterior, maybe with images that hint at the story inside. Repurpose an old picture book that's damaged but too precious to toss. Over your most favorite pages, trace circles slightly smaller than the box. Cut out five or more sections, and attach them in order with washi tape. Glue the first page to the inside of the box, fold the pages on top of each other, and close the lid.

True sewing aficionados want their tools close at hand no matter where they go. Straight pins can be a real pain to transport. However, if they're secured inside a cushioned box with a lid, the risk of poke-filled spills decreases. Cut a circle of fabric that's several inches wider than the box's diameter, fill the center with a clump of fiber fill, and stitch the edges together. Glue the sewn opening inside the box, and sink some pins and needles into the plush cushion.

Finish that last bite of brie, and make the box into an ornament for any holiday. Put together a wintry scene with a painted or decoupaged snowscape. Emblazon it with red, pink, and gold hearts for a Valentine's Day wall hanging. Transform the circular shape into a jack-o-lantern to for a spooky Halloween decoration. Once you're done with your design, add a loop made of matching ribbon at the top to bring some additional interest and make it easier to hang on your wall or tree.