Wood Crate Shelves

I must admit I'm somewhat addicted to Pinterest. Ok, maybe a little more than somewhat. FINE! I'm very addicted! lol
Phew... I feel better. :-) 

During one of those nights where I was dreaming of all the things I want/need to do to my house I remembered that I needed more storage in my craft room. I found this great picture on Pinterest of a shelf made out of wood crates. Immediately I went searching online for some wood crates and found some reasonably priced at JoAnn Fabrics. The next day I sent my husband on search for them down South since we don't have one here... yet!!! (One coming soon! Very happy about that!) 

Unfortunately, the store didn't have too many, but I took what they had. I started playing around with stains to make them look good with the vintage nautical/Old Man and the Sea decor I have in the craft room. Finally decided to do a white stain with a few drops of blue food color added. It is a very light/pale blue and the wood knots and grain still show through. It is not exactly what I had envision, but I like it.

Here are few of the pictures so far.

These are the natural, unfinished crates


The difference is very subtle.


Left side is painted - Right side is natural



I'm still in need of purchasing two more to complete 3 rows of 7. Just a few more to go before they are all stained and they will be ready to put up safely against the wall. That light in the middle will hopefully be moved today and placed over my work table.



One of the things I changed from the original plan was that I wanted the back to be covered in old nautical charts. After seeing the prices of them I decided to DIY them. Bright idea, right? Yes, maybe. But it was soooo time consuming that after doing just one I decided against it. So that lonely crate with the nautical chart will be used as a center one to hold the phone and some tchotchkes.

Here is why this brilliant DIY nautical chart process took so long.

I printed some pictures of nautical charts from an online search on regular computer/copy paper. Cut them into strips and dyed them with water & food coloring. I used blue, of course.



Then I layed them on a clean cookie sheet, padded out the extra water and baked them. Yes... you read right. I baked them at 200 degrees and watched for the paper to start lifting from the pan. Once they lifted I removed them from the pan and let them dry a little longer just in case. You have to watch them to make sure they don't burn. Although it is not hot enough to burn, but just be on the safe side.



After they were all dry, I adhered them to the crate using decoupage for paper. I made sure I had cut the strips wide enough to cover not only the front, but to fold over the tiny edges. This is the finished product.


Cute right? I think so. However, this one box took a good hour between printing and final step. And when I started putting my stuff in it, you couldn't even see the charts!!! AHHH.. I was so dissappointed. So that's why I decided to just leave it at one. If I weren't covering it with stuff I might have just done them all.

Maybe I will do the dresser instead, using these charts. I don't know yet.

I hope to have this done by next week if I can convince my hubby to do it :-)

Comments

  1. Niesz Vintage HomeJanuary 9, 2012 at 10:04 AM

    Wow! Great idea. The crates make for a wonderful storage solution!
    Liked your map project, too. But you're right, that's a lot of crate slats to cover. :-)

    Kimberly

    ReplyDelete

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