Easy Numbered Crate

Sound the horns! I actually created a project that I pinned!

(source via Pinterest)

If you’ve been following for over a year, you might remember that my big project last March was my pantry makeover. If not, you can check out the before/after pictures here. I never completely finished my to-do list (big shocker, I know), but now I’m back, a year later, with a pantry project.

One of the best updates I made to the pantry was organizing everything into jars, baskets, and crates. It keeps everything more organized and it just looks less cluttered. Last year I bought a couple crates from Hobby Lobby to hold chips and rags and I’d planned to buy a couple more to hold the rest of the towels and cleaning supplies. But eventually I moved on to other projects and forgot about the pantry until I saw this crate project from Kelli at Lolly Jane:

(source via Pinterest)

Not only are they cute (and functional), they are also cheap and easy to make! The crates are regularly $11.99 at Joann’s, but are only about $7 after your handy 40%-off coupon. I lucked out and got a 50%-off coupon in my e-mail, so I only paid $6.53 (including tax) for my crate.

I stained the crate Dark Walnut, which I already had on hand. Then I used my Silhouette to cut out the letters and number.

I used some CraftSmart Robin’s Egg Blue that I had leftover from my painted pot herb garden to paint the letters and numbers. I only did one coat of paint and then removed the vinyl stencil as soon as I was done painting. After the paint dried I lightly sanded it with very fine sandpaper. This is a great way to make it look more aged and hide any mistakes (paint bleeding under the stencil, brush marks).

I love how it turned out! I’m already planning another trip to Joann’s (with another coupon) to buy one more crate for the pantry!

Here’s my cleaning supplies shelf before:

And here’s how it looks with my new crate! It definitely looks more organized and less cluttered!

Thanks Kelli for sharing such a great find and an easy transformation! You can see Kelli’s crate project here and her amazing craft storage system here.