DIY: Antique Crate Shelving

When John and I made over our living room we moved many of the books in our office out into our new living room shelving. We ended up getting rid of the big bookcase we had in our office because it was empty and we didn’t want to keep it if it wasn’t being used.

Here’s the before and after:

However the one thing that was leftover with no home were our vacation jars. We were really loving the corner of newfound space in the office and didn’t want to clutter it up so we decided on wall shelving for the jars. We went back and forth about what kind of shelving, the size and placement of new shelves, and where to buy them. We couldn’t find anything we like and we started to get fed up with the process.

On a whim I showed John a few ideas I had found on Pinterest (this and this) and he loved them! I then had the great idea to check out local antique markets to see if we could find some cool old wooden crates. You may have seen my blog on the Cambridge Antique Market which where we ended up finding two amazing yellow United Farmers of Boston dairy crates.

We measured the wall, found the studs, and got to mounting the crates.

We sunk large screws into the studs and hung the crates by the natural spaces in the slats rather than screwing through the crate and into the wall. This created a straighter and more sturdy fit.

Mounting the second crate took my handy husband about 2 seconds.

Once the crates were wall mounted and we tested them to make sure they were sturdy, we loaded them up with our vacation jars. Here is the finished product:

What do you think?! We love them. The end result turned out way better than we imagined. The crates add the perfect pop of color to the room. They are a unique approach to traditional shelving and add a little antique charm to our office.