DIY Rustic Crate

Not only do I love storage, I need it.  My family accumulates a lot of stuff and they get that stuff out a lot.  My hubby would love it if his stuff could permanently live on the end table.  Why do I feel the need to put away remotes and notebooks and computer monitors if he's just going to get it out again later tonight?  Solution: easily accessible crates.  

I bought two crates like the above bare wood crate.  I bought the first a few months ago at Home Depot.  When I finally got around to getting a second for my project, they were no where to be found at Home Depot.  No problem, I went to Michaels armed with a 40% coupon and bought a second.  I found that while staining, the Michaels crate had a much rougher finish on the interior and next time I will run a sander over it before getting started.

My first step was to stain the crate inside and out with Minwax Dark Walnut.

I let that sit for a while, mostly because I had no idea what my next step would be.  I finally figured out a plan and purchased two colors of sample paint.  I used Valspar's Green Shimmer for the first coat.  I dry brushed it on.  If you've never dry brushed, you basically need to wipe the excess paint off of your brush before you paint with it.

After coating the entire crate, I recoated again with Valspar's Mermaid Tail.  In hindsight, these colors were very similar and I maybe should have gone for a little more contrast...live and learn.  You can see the second color on the left.

Here it is completely covered with both colors.

The next step was sand it down with 80 grit sandpaper using my vibrating sander.

 

I then applied the stain again over the paint.  I made sure to apply stain everywhere as it really took away the "fresh paint" look.  After applying, I wiped away any excess stain.

I bought this leather belt for $3 at Goodwill the other day with this project in mind but it was still too shiny.

My first thought was to paint it with the paint I used on the crate...

it wasn't my favorite so I tried white...

and then wiped off the excess with my stain rag.

The last step was to attach it over the open handle using a couple of screws.

I'm debating putting casters on the bottom box to make it easier for my girls to access their toys.  I'm loving how they turned out and I love how practical they will be for my family!