Pen Storage unit using Amac boxes

Several months ago I was shopping at a local art store for the last time.  Allegheny Art was going out of business. I had shopped at the store for years and I was sad to see it close. I found an inexpensive pen rack for $3 and purchased it. I loved using it because my pens were stored horizontally and they were accessible.

I have been trying to organize my supplies for so long and what I realized is that my pen collection was much larger than I thought. Primarily, because I had pens stashed away, in cute zippered bags, in drawers. So, like Marie Kondo would recommend, I decided to pull them all out. What I discovered was a bit shocking.

My first reaction was to rush out and buy something to store all these pens. Then I decided to peruse Pinterest and see what others had done. I decided that for me, having the pens out and available was important. I eliminated the idea of drawers and found this link to pen storage

Pin on pen storage using amac boxes

This gave me an idea. I took stock of what I had, measured how deep the cubbies should be and decided what I would need. Then I visited the Container Store and got 21 Amac boxes sized 2 5/16" square by 5 1/16" high. 

I decided I wanted to make a 7 box-high storage unit and have three columns. Why seven? Well ROYGBIV of course. What I didn't appreciate is that indigo and violet are rarely part of a huge collection so these can go in one box. So the 7th box was great for neutrals like brown and gray.

To glue the boxes I did some research and learned that acrylic can be "welded" chemically by using acetone. So I got myself a small syringe and glued them by applying a small amount of acetone to the gap between the boxes. The acetone does leave a cloudy mark, but I tried to keep this to the bottoms of the boxes, so you cannot really see the marks.

Here's the final result:

I am so excited to have my pens out, available and visible. That's all for today!!