Average But Inspired

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Turn a Crate into a Rolling Firewood Caddy

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Wooden crates are everywhere: the craft store, home improvement stores, and even big box stores!  They’re super accessible, and because of that, perfect for a wide variety of DIY projects.  Today I’ll show you how to turn a crate into a rolling firewood caddy!  Love this! It's so easy to make a rolling firewood caddy with a wood crate. Learn how to customize a crate for looks and function. It's a great piece of fireplace decor!

DIY rolling firewood caddy made from an unfinished crate available at Michaels.

I am in love with my little firewood caddy.  It has opened up my entire fireplace (I used to have a fireplace screen covering the firebox), and added a personal touch to my living room.

DIY rolling firewood caddy made from an unfinished crate available at Michaels.

It was also really, really easy to put together.  Score!

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I started with a plain wooden crate.  (Although I linked to one online, if you get a 40% off coupon for Michaels, you can get them much cheaper there.)   

Unfinished crate.
Next, I sanded the crate’s rough spots and then primed the entire thing with a brown spray primer that looks red in this photo.  I swear it’s not red.
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Once the primer dried, I painted the crate with the Americana Decor chalky finish paint that I had leftover from my grain sack coffee table makeover.  I intentionally made the paint look streaky so that some of the brown primer would show through, as I wanted the crate to have an antique look to it.
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After the paint dried, I lightly sanded in areas to give a further distressed look.

Next, I decided to add some text on the front of my crate.  I wanted it to look like a vintage crate I picked up at a flea market or something.  Since this was going in my fireplace, I decided to make up a fake timber company bearing my last name.

(Sidenote: I bet I would have been an awesome lumberjack if I had taken that career path.  I look really good in flannel.)

I downloaded some free rustic-looking fonts and a pine tree image, typed out my text using the Word Art function in Word, reversed the text, and printed it out on freezer paper so that I could do an image transfer.  I followed a freezer paper image transfer tutorial, and it worked really well.

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Once the text dried, I added some brackets to the exterior sides of the crate.  I think this helped make it look even more “vintage,” which is just what I wanted.
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Then I screwed four casters to the bottom of the crate.  Since the crate would be holding firewood, I wanted to be able to easily move it.  I am too weak to lift it up when it’s filled with wood!  The casters did the trick perfectly.
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It looked pretty cute just like this, but I wanted to be able to mask the ugly staining on the back wall of my firebox, so I needed to add some more height.
DIY rolling firewood caddy made from an unfinished crate available at Michaels.
I fixed this problem by adding a galvanized metal pail into my crate.
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It was the perfect addition!
DIY rolling firewood caddy made from an unfinished crate available at Michaels.
I had so much fun turning my plain crate into a functional and decorative accessory for my home!
 
What have you made with a wooden crate?
 
– Bre

Filed Under: DIY

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Comments

  2. maggiemaysgifts says

    Wow!! I LOVE how this turned out…from the vintage paint job to the text transfer to the wheels! This is awesome!
    If you guys ever do another challenge like this and need another participant (wink wink), I would love to play along. I love challenges!! 🙂
    Either way, awesome job!

    Reply

  4. The Rozy Home says

    I’m so glad you did this! I am displaying at a home show this weekend and using wood crates. I was trying to decide the best way to get lettering on my boxes – this will do it! Yay!

    Reply

  5. The Seana Method says

    These are all fabulous. What an affordable solution to a WIDE variety of storage needs. I think just about any play room or door room would benefit from having one on wheels, right? Very creative solution for the firewood. Any my maiden name is Greer:)

    Reply

  6. Erica Sooter says

    I absolutely adore your wording – Timber & Supply Co. and that little tree logo is just perfection! This is so clever, clever. I hate having firewood just stacked on the ground or whatever so this is the perfect solution as those cold winter months come around!

    Reply

  8. Tara Hatch says

    Love this, Bre! Love the vintage look that you created with the stain and chalky paint, looks great! I have never heard of the freezer paper image transfer, I am going to have to try this.

    Reply

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