How to Decorate With Cheese Crates

Wall Cubbies

• 1

  Leave the crates plain, or treat them with wood stain or paint them; your imagination limits the range of possibilities for finishing them if you don't like them in their unaltered state. Sand any roughness from the boxes before staining or painting, using 240-grit to 400-grit sandpaper.

• 2

  Run a stud finder across the wall to locate and mark the crates. Temporarily locate the crates on the walls, with the crate bottoms against the wall, at a height convenient to an arm’s reach. Decide how to arrange the crates, making sure the top center of each one intersects with a stud. Options include placing them in a row, making a grid or staggering them. Make marks to identify their placement.

• 3

  Affix the bottoms of the crates to the wall with finish nails. Drive finish nails through the inside bottoms of the crates: one near the crate bottoms' centers, one near the uppermost part of the crate bottoms, and one near the lower portion of the crate bottoms.

• 4

  Use the cubbies to hold just about anything: books, hats, kids' toys, compact discs or kitchen spices.

Console Table

• 5

  Purchase pre-milled table legs.

• 6

  Sand the table legs and a larger, square cheese crate, sanding in the direction of the wood grains.

• 7

  Stain or paint the legs and crate to match each other.

• 8

  Apply wood glue to the top corners of the crate, where the legs will sit. Insert the tops of the legs into the inside corners of the crate.

• 9

  Secure the legs to crate. Drive finish nails through the outer walls and top of the crate, into the table legs. If the cheese crate material is thick enough, hidden L-brackets connecting the legs to the inside of the crate will provide extra stability.

• 10

  Place the table near the entryway and adorn it with a vase of flowers.

Shadowbox

• 11

  Stain or paint the crate, if desired, or leave it raw.

• 12

  Screw a wall hanging device to the back of the crate, near the top and on center.

• 13

  Cut a piece of lining to fit the dimensions of the crate, and line the back of the crate. Options include stuck-on wallpaper or glued-on fabric or craft paper.

• 14

  Come up with a theme for the shadowbox. Options include family, travel, pets, nature, special memories and many more; the sky -- or the size of the cheese crate -- is the limit. Decorate the shadowbox with a variety of images, mementos and small objects that relate to the theme. Glue some items to the back and walls of the crate. Glue chunks of foam board to the backs of some of those items so they protrude slightly. Place others on the bottom edge of the shadowbox as you would set decorations on a shelf. Hang others from string tied to the ceiling of the shadow box.

• 15

  Drive a nail into the wall and hang the shadow box by its hanging device.