Watercolor swatch organizer

Catalogue boxes for swatch cards

Categories: Bookbinding Projects

Introduction

I have hundreds of small watercolor swatches. I kept them in some smaller boxes, but their size (110x164x48 mm) was not optimal for the Billy bookcase’s depth (I need 260mm depth instead of 164 mm).

Some random swatches. Have hundreds of them.

So I made 6 new boxes (trays) + enclosing containers to fill the available space. Since the trays are pretty long, I split them into two with a divider wall.

Materials

  • 2.5mm bookbinding board
  • Efalin (black) for the cover outside
  • Napura Khepera (black) bookbinding paper for the lining
  • PVA for box making, Planatol Elasta N (paste) + Planatol BB (glue) mix for lining

Photos

The IKEA Billy shelf where I store the old swatch boxes
2 old boxes and a prototype tray
Lining the protoype with Napura Khapera
The finished box with efalin covers
Bookbinding boards cut to size for the remaining 5 boxes
Boxes without lining and covers
Whenever I need to install a 'divider' I create temporary spacers from leftover material. That makes much easier to glue the divider to the right place.
Finished trays