In our living room, under the
I made, I had stacks of books. It didn't bother me much in the beginning, but it was starting to feel visually cluttered, so I started looking for nice storage to use there. I couldn't find anything affordable that was striking my fancy so decided to DIY it when I found these great vintage wood crates at a local antique store. One of them was in pretty good shape as you can see from the first picture, but I needed to make the other two match. I also wanted to add little casters so that the would be easier to use and wouldn't scratch the floors. It was a pretty simple project, the whole thing probably took about two hours. The full how two is below:
Supplies:
- Vintage Wood Crates
- Clear Satin Finish Polyurethane
- Paintbrush
- Brass Casters (I got mine from Amazon)
- Metal Brush (go with softer bristles so it doesn't gouge the wood_
- Sand Paper (heavy and finer grains)
- Hammer
Process:
- Use the metal brush to get as much rust off the metal as possible
- Hammer in any loose nails or bowing metal pieces
- Lightly sand the surface by hand, you don't want to take off any of the painted logo
- Use the heavier sand paper to take off any hard edges on the top
- Wipe down the entire box with a damp towel
- Once it's dry, paint a coat of clear polyurethane over the entire crate. After it dries, see how it looks and do another if you think it's needed
- Place the casters on the bottom where you'd like them to be, mark the holes with a pencil
- Screw pilot holes
- Screw in casters
- You're done!
This is the before and after of the shelf with the crates, looks so much cleaner!!