DIY Crate Tutorial {simple cheap & easy} #crate #simplestorage #inexpensivestorage

Last week, I showed you my Pantry Overhaul {feel free to check that out here}...complete with vintage-inspired wooden crates that corral my chaos {because girls, I"ve got some serious chaos. I"m a hot mess.}!

Now that the pantry has been fully-functional for a couple of weeks, I"m happy to report that the crates are working out beautifully. When I started on this pantry, I was inspired by Shelley over at House of Smiths {who isn"t inspired by Shelley?}. While her original pantry design in her own home was completely mind-blowing, I"ve also been in awe of the pantry and crates she created for the DIY Bloggers" House she was a part of. I was on the search to either buy or make some for myself.

I first priced out vintage crates...and at $30-$40 a piece, and a bunch of weird, wonky sizes, I decided this would be a DIY project. And by DIY, I mean I called my dad and asked his opinion on it. And by asked his opinion on it, I mean I know the man well enough to know his OCD tendencies wouldn"t let me handle this one on my own {I come by my quirks naturally, people}.

And would you believe we spent less than $30 for all SIX of these? Seriously.

While I truly envisioned this being a complete me job with him standing in the background giving me pointers, it turned into our usual. You know, my dad doing 90% of the work while I click away with the camera. And manage to break in half three of his drill bits when I was helping. We"re a great team, Dad & I. I smooth things over with coconut-cream pies and endless cups of Donut Shop Coffee.

I did do all the painting and distressing on my own. For some reason, I feel the need to justify myself here.

Of course, Dad shows up at my house with a lot of the work already done. He"s a keeper.

These are all of the ends of the crates (1x4s and 1x2 braces).

You can see the pile of 1x4s we used as the sides.

• We built six total crates {five are all the same size, but the one for the top shelf of my pantry is a longer size to accomodate my overflow items} .
• My standard crates were 15"x12". We cut all of our boards accordingly...keep in mind, we had to subtract the amount that the end pieces took up in order to keep our sizes accurate for our pantry"s shelves. If we had just cut boards in 15" and 12" lengths, this wouldn"t have worked. You"ll need to take into account how long the sides will be once they"re attached to the ends in order to get your correct measurement.
• We used 1x4s for all of the exterior boards, and used "rough one side" to cut costs {the rough side faces inward}.
• We used 1x2s in the inside corners to add stability and, well, hold them all together.
• We used 1/8" paneling for the bottoms {this the same stuff furniture-makers use to make drawer bottoms...while it may sound skimpy, it"s very durable for this purpose}.
• We used 1 1/2" screws for the main body and wire nails to attach the paneling to the bottom.

We made a cardboard template so all of our screw holes would be identical on each crate.

This isn"t a necessary step, but it makes it aesthetically nicer.

Getting ready to attach the side pieces.

We used wood glue on everything we attached.

IMPORTANT: You"ll want to pre-drill your holes (that you marked with your template if you"re using one). Pre-drilling prevents the wood from splitting once the screw goes in. I managed to break three drill bits when I did some of these...it wasn"t pretty. There"s three drill bits sunk into random crate holes in my pantry somewhere. Niiiiiiice.

Drill your screws in. If you noticed on our cardboard template I showed you above, one screw hole is a bit offset. That"s the screw that catches into the corner 1x2 that holds the whole piece together and makes it super strong.

After all of our crate sides were assembled, we drew out the lines for their bottoms on our paneling. We used the circular saw to cut them out. Anything that was a bit jagged got sanded off later.

Ta-Da!

When I first explained this whole project to my dad, he couldn"t understand why I would want the screw heads showing. But, he totally got it later. It"s a part of the vintage-y appeal to these.

After thoroughly sanding, I painted them each white with the latex paint that I had used for the pantry shelves.

After the paint dried for about 24 hours, I came back and sanded the edges with my palm sander. I also sanded the paint off of some of the screw heads...I truly think they add to the charm of these pieces.

Then I took stain and just applied it to the edges only (I used a smaller brush so it wouldn"t get too messy). I used the dark-walnut stain that I use on everything.

Then I simply wiped the stain off after it had sat on the edges for ten minutes or so. While wiping, some stain inevitably gets on the front parts of the boards, too. That just adds to the charm.

Original article and pictures take http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2012/10/diy-crate-tutorial-simple-cheap-easy.html site


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