Repurposed Wooden Shipping Crate Table

I want to be the first to introduce you to Tricia from Simplicity in the South.  She is one of my new contributors and today is her big debut on Infarrantly Creative.  When I saw her blog and her amazing style I reached out to her and begged her to be part of my team.  I think you will realize quick how talented she is and you will want to spend some time over at her house checking out her projects.

There are many things you can do with an empty discarded wooden crate.  I made a toy box out of one last year.  Today Tricia is showing us how to make her repurposed crate storage table.  Give a warm IC welcome to Tricia.

Hello Infarrantly Creative readers! I’m Tricia from Simplicity in the South and I’m so excited to be on board as new contributor! I have to admit it, I’m not shy when it comes to asking for free stuff. You never know when someone is ready to give up something they consider junk. When the idea struck me to repurpose a crate into a storage table, I drove to four different garden centers before finding the kind soul who gave me a bulb shipping crate in exchange for being sworn to secrecy of my resource. I’m good with that. Today, I’m going to show you how easy it is to turn a crate into a side table that doubles as storage. If you can’t find one at the garden center, check with the grocery stores. You can also find some reasonable vintage crates at an antique store.

Other than the crate, you’ll need:

(4) caster wheels

(2) hinges

A handle for the lid

1/2 inch plywood for the top that overlaps the crate by 1/4 inch on all sides

Medium grit sandpaper

A paint brush Watered down white latex paint

Dry Rag

tack cloth

Outdoor polyurethane to protect your piece if you plan to use it outside

1.  First, you’ll want to sand the crate and plywood top. Then, wipe it off with a tack cloth to remove the dust. To give the new wood an aged look, brush on watered-down white paint and let it sit for a couple of minutes before wiping it off with a dry rag. To make sure you have the ratio of paint to water to your liking, test it out on the bottom of the crate first.

After letting the paint dry a couple of hours, seal the wood with an outdoor polyurethane. Next, add caster wheels to the bottom of the crate.

Screw in the hinges for the lid.

Add the handle.

And you’ve got yourself a super cute side table that doubles as storage. I’m using our crate on our covered porch to hold gardening supplies.

In the winter, I’ll use it for storing pillows but it would also be the perfect place for keeping the kids’ outside toys. Who doesn’t need a little extra place to hide the clutter?

If you like this crate storage idea, then you should check out my post on how to make a decoupaged map crate. And if you want to see how I aged the flower pots stored in our crate, check out my tutorial on how to age terracotta pots with a mixture of Annie Sloan Paint and wax. Thank you, Beckie, for letting me share my project with your folks and I look forward to coming back next month!