I've been wanting to use wood crates as shelves for a while because I love the look but I hadn't started collecting vintage crates from flea markets and believed my crate shelf dreams were a ways off. But then, I stumbled onto a giant pile of new, un-finished crates at JoAnn's Fabrics for $10 each!!! My crate shelf dreams were now a reality and I just had to make them look more "vintage" with a little stain action! You can find unfinished crates at JoAnn's and Michaels or already stained options at places like World Market.
Wood crate shelving makes for nice floating shelves and gives you lots of flexibility with how you choose to arrange them on your wall. I chose to hang my crate shelves in a cluster around a wall mirror because I'm using them for a jewelry display for Mr. Kate jewelry in our office but you could use them as bookshelves, or whatever else you need to store and flaunt! Watch the video for the full tutorial on how to stain and hang them and see my notes below for different wall mounting techniques. If you’re looking for other shelving options, see Styling Floating Shelves or make a Wood Pallet Coffee Table to match your crate shelves!
Prep it:
- wood crates - you can find unfinished crates at JoAnn's and Michaels or already stained options at places like World Market
- stain - in the color of your choice - I used a red oak color
- sandpaper - medium grit
- paint brush
- rags
- dropcloth
- wall hanging supplies depending on the wall surface your drilling into - we hung on drywall so we used: a drill, drill bit, drywall anchors and screws, hammer and screwdriver bit for drill
The blank wall BEFORE….
DO IT!:
- lay down your drop cloth and sand your crates to remove any splinters or rough spots
- stain your crates by brushing on the stain and quickly wiping off the excess with a rag - brush with the grain of the wood - let dry
- plan your crate arrangement for your wall area and hang them using the appropriate hardware for the type of wall you're drilling into, etc. We hung on drywall so we pre-drilled holes using a drill and drill bit the size of our drywall anchors, then we hammered in the drywall anchor, placed the crate over the anchors making sure we could drill through the wood slats and screwed our drywall screw through the wood and into the prepped hole and anchor in the wall. we used two screws per crate placed about 4 inches down from the top of the crate.
- style your shelves and enjoy!
