Trash To Treasure: Apple Crate Bookcase

I’m honestly so excited to be kicking off a brand new series on the blog today! Like most of you, I’m no stranger to recycling thrift store finds or saving items from being thrown out (just look in my garage!). So today I’m officially kicking off a Trash to Treasure Series with 3 very talented bloggers AKA Design, A Burst Of Beautiful and A House And A Dog!

Every month we will be sharing a new trash to treasure project and today I’m kicking it off with a very special project. An Apple Crate Bookcase.

A few years ago, my grandparents moved out of their life long home and were going to throw out these old crates. Naturally I could NEVER let them go to waste, especially since they are more than a couple of crates. These crates were actually built by my grandma when she worked on the family apple orchard.

I love that they carry my family history with them. The fact that these were my grandma’s crates she filled every day with apples and that they have been used for so many years is so special.

I have three of them and I use them for decor around the house, especially for fall and winter. This week, I took two of them and turned them into a bookcase for the vintage nursery I’m doing for baby. This was a really easy and inexpensive transformation that you can do with any crates you find.

QUICK TUTORIAL

First, I sanded them down with 160 grit sand paper to give them a smooth finish. These crates have been through a lot, I didn’t want to erase their history but I did want to polish them up.

I’m a huge fan of these microfiber cloths. You can get them in the automotive aisle but I use them for all of my projects because they clean surfaces really well by collecting all the dust.

I wanted to give the bookcase dimension, so I added a set of wheels on the bottom. Since the wood on the crates is fairly thin, I added a piece to the bottom to help secure the wheels.

To build the structure I stacked the two crates on top of each other and then added pieces of wood on the back that overlapped both sides, then screwed it together.

I gave it a coat of spray polycrylic to finish it off.

I really love how it turned out and love that this sweet nursery has a piece of family history in it.

Here are the other TRASH TO TREASURE projects for this month!

DIY Book Bundles by AKA Design

Recycled Water Color Ribbon by A Burst of Beautiful

Chalk Painted Books by A House And A Dog