Thursday, June 2, 2011

Wine Crate Shelves


I'm doing some serious nesting these days as I'm about to give birth to my first son in one month.  My husband and I are super excited, and I've been spending the last few months figuring out how to decorate the new baby's room.  I spent a lot of time window shopping, and quite frankly, I'm disappointed with most of the options out there on the market.  The cool stuff is outrageously expensive, and the affordable stuff is so generic.  I want something with character that's affordable, and after a few frustrating months, I resigned myself to making some of the smaller decorative furniture myself.

I knew I would need some shelving solution for all the baby accoutrements I will be accumulating.  Somehow, I became obsessed with wine crates and wanted to make some kind of storage unit out of them.  I scored a bunch of wine crates on Craigslist for $5 each.


I found these angle slots at Home Depot that would make the bookcase-like structure I was imagining.  These are typically used for industrial shelving in garages and warehouses.



I evenly spaced out 3 boxes and placed one of the angle slots on top.  


Next, I drilled holes in the crates where I would attach the crate to the angle slots with bolts.  Then I slipped in the bolt and secured it to the angle slot with a nut on the other side.  Helpful hint - make sure you don't drill into the nails that are holding the crate together.


Repeat on all boxes on all four corners.


If you're handy with a drill, it will take less than 30 minutes to make this unit.