Tag: crate

Craft Projects, Furniture

Crate table… finally

Jessica Smith

Remember this crate I bought 50,000 years ago? OK, it was really only 2.5 years ago. But that seems long enough to finish a project, amiright?

{A Smith of All Trades} Sweet wooden crate from Super Flea

I knew I wanted to do something awesome with this crate I found at a flea market in upstate New York, so I bought some hairpin legs and got to work. But my project stalled for, well, 2.5 years — I couldn’t figure out a top for the darn thing! I thought of glass. I tried a cabinet door and a tray. Nothing seemed right.

We were using the crate table as an end table for a while with the cabinet door sitting on top when my sister moved and offered us her end table. Hers was finished, mine was not. It was a no brainer. So I moved my crate table, cabinet door and all, into our basement bathroom. It had an awkward space that needed something, and I was hoping this could be it.

I really liked the way it looked, minus the door, so when we started getting snowed in last weekend and an idea popped into my head I jumped on it.

Here was the plan: I would create brackets within the crate and set a table top inside of it! Brilliant!

So, I screwed cabinet shelf spacers/brackets into the crate so I could slip a table top inside.

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Cabinet-Holder

They aren’t really supposed to go that way — you are supposed to drill holes into the cabinets then screw the brackets into each shelf — but it worked for this project so who cares!

Next up, I took scrap wood and started crafting the table top.

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Scrap-Wood

Before, I was hellbent on having a top that extended over the edges. As an end table, it made a lot of sense. I need a place for coasters and cups, remotes, phones, books — really any crap I need to set on the table while we watch TV and live in our faily room. But in the bathroom, I just needed something pretty with a little storage.

So I started to make a top that would rest inside the crate on the brackets. I measured three pieces of scrap wood, then trimmed them down to fit inside the crate. Once I got everything squared up, I used a nail gun the nail each board onto a board underneath.

Here’s the top:

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Unfinished-Top

And the support underneath:

ASOAT_Crate-Table_TopBottom

The crate is old. Old old old. So I wanted to ding up the top a bit to match. Then, I aded droplets of black stain, and even drew black blotches with my calligraphy pen to date the top a bit more.

Then, I stained the top using a mixture of ebony and walnut Minwax stain. I have no idea what type of wood this is since I purchased it so long ago, but dang — that grain is prettyyyyy!

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Stained-Top

Once the top was dry, I dropped it in to see how it looked.

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Top-CloseUp

… and it looks great! The crate is super cool and it looks awesome in my bathroom.

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Finished

The top easily lifts off by sticking your hands through the handles of the crate, so it is the perfect little storage piece.

ASOAT_Crate-Table_Finished2

Also, can we talk about the hairpin legs? I started this project so long ago I can’t find the pictures of the installation, but it was very easy. Simply screw it into the base of the crate, and voila! I didn’t seal them either, so they look worn, just like the metal on the crate.

On the whole, I love this project. It might have taken me wayyyy too long to finish it, but I am mighty happy with how it turned out.

If you find an old crate — or heck, even a new crate from Michaels — this is a great way to make a storage piece for your home.

 

Furniture

Crate Coffee Table, part 2

Jessica Smith

Earlier this year I found a crate on my local Freecycle listserv that I scooped up, added some caster to and turned into a coffee table.

Crate Coffee Table

The crate sat as is for a while, but the wood was rough around the edges and the crate had been written on and scuffed up. I decided to take on the coffee table crate project for a second time, this time opting to stain the crate and make the piece a little more polished — well, as polished as an old wood crate can look.

The side of the crate was painted a dark, charcoal gray. I decided to stain the crate a gray to pull out the charcoal-colored sides.

Before I could start staining, I had to sand the hell outta the crate. The top was covered in nicks, scuffs, sharpie, old sticker goo…. It wasn’t pretty.

Crate

It looked like someone had kept score on the crate, or attempted math? Who knows. But the sharpie had to go.

CrateTop

Once the whole crate was sanded down, I applied a gray stain to the whole thing, including the painted sides. Since some of the paint was scuffed off, I wanted to make sure the exposed wood was gray, too.

CrateStained

The wood soaked up the stain lie crazy, turning the whole crate a charcoal gray with wood grain popping through. I love the color mixed with the natural wood peeping through.

Once it dried, I coated the whole thing in a polyurethane.

CrateGray

The finished product is still a roughed up, old crate — but a much nicer looking old crate. I like the gray a lot and how it tied the sides and the rest of the piece together. I also like the lack of graffiti on my furniture. That’s a plus for sure.

Crate iside

We aren’t currently using the crate as a coffee table, so I’m not sure what we’ll do with it. But I really like the cleaned up look for this neat old piece.

Furniture

Crate Coffee Table

Jessica Smith

Are there any freecyclers out there reading my blog today? I signed up for the local freecycle group more than a year ago and pretty much ignored the onslaught of emails that frequented my inbox until recently. I was clicking through and saw this beautiful antique dresser that I had to have. But of course, since I didn’t pay any attention t the emails and was a week late in asking the person if I could take it off of their hands into my loving home, I missed out on destiny. OK, that is super melodramatic — it would have been awesome to score a free dresser, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

Ever since then, I keep an eye out and quickly scan the emails (I get about 5 a day). I saw a posting for a free crate. No picture, no description other than it was homemade. And I jumped on it.

My loving hubby graciously went along to help me haul the crate into our truck and into our home. I was pretty nervous since there wasn’t a picture, so I wanted him  that the whole thing very well could be a bust.

To my great surprise and pleasure, the crate was awesome. AWESOMEEEEEE.

Crate

It is beat up and well-loved, and once we brought it inside I was totally digging it in our space.

Sure there’s random crate graffiti…

Crate top

… but I kinda like it!

The inside is also way cool…. in fact, I wish they’d used some of the neat inside boards on the outside. But hey, you can’t ask for perfection when you get something for free.

Crate lid

Crate inside

The crate was just sitting on our carpet in front of our couch for a while, waiting for some attention. So I gave it some love by adding casters! And while it wasn’t an earth-shattering change and won’t be the last thing I do to the crate, it made a pretty big difference.

Or at least I think so. … if for no other reason than I can actually move it easily now!

Crate Side

I got the casters from Home Depot and was able to add them with just a few screws each. It took me all of 5 minutes. Gotta love that for a quick transformation.

Crate Coffee Table

The crate will serve as a lovely coffee table in our family room until I find something a tad bit more permanent. I think it looks really cool near the thrift store end tables that I found not too long ago. The whole room is slowly but surely coming along. Someday I’ll finish it. Maybe.

Scored any free treasures lately?