Well here it is...my first major attempt at one of my pins on Pinterest! We made more trips to Home Depot than we really wanted to, but all in all it went pretty smooth for the first time.
Here was my inspiration:
Materials Needed:
4 Crates - We got them at Joann's. They were $12, but we used a coupon and got them for $7.
Wood for the base - You will need to measure the crates to decide on length of cuts for the window frame base
4 L Brackets
Wooden Dowels
Wood Glue
Stain
Wood Screws
First we set the crates together to stage them and take measurements for the base. We got 2 long boards cut at 27 inches, 3 at 21 inches, 2 at 9.5 inches. We got 1x3 pine boards, but what we didn't realize was that its not actually 3 inches wide. So our base isn't perfect but we learned for next time. Apparently there is a chart at Home Depot that explains this.
So we were off to Home Depot for all (well we thought all) the supplies. Peyton was with us so it was definitely an event! We had some very nice guys help us out with the cutting and give some helpful tips.
Next we mixed some wood putty to cover up the holes from the staples on the sides of the crate and set them to the side to dry.
We used wooden dowels to attach the boards for the base to each other. This was definitely the most challenging step of the whole process! We did not perfect it and need more practice with this for sure. We lined the boards up with each other and marked where to drill our holes. When we put it all together we realized we got off somewhere so the base isn't squared up. We added L brackets to the corners to make it more secure.
The wood putty had dried and the crates were ready to be sanded and stained. We just lightly sanded the wood putty areas and to make sure there weren't any areas with splinters. This was mine and my mom's first attempt at ever staining something. Its a lot easier than what I thought it would be. Besides the mess, I think I like it better than painting. We really loved the way the color turned out.
After the stain has dried we put the crates back together to screw them in. We used a ratchet to make sure they stayed still while we were drilling.
After talking with the guy at Home Depot, we decided to countersink the screws so that it looked a little more professional. That means that the screw will be sunk into the wood so that you can putty it and hide the screw. This was very intimidating because it required a new tool. But again we found out it was not hard at all. We used the countersink tool to drill a hole and then put the screw in. Ta-da...we know how to countersink!
Next to fill in that hole....this was another difficult part. You definitely need to measure twice (or 4 times) and cut once. We had to cut twice. Measure the inside and then simply put the screws in the same way we did before on the sides then screw the bottom pieces on. Next we attached the base to the crates and stained the box. Then we polyurethaned the whole thing.
And here is our final product! My inspiration had more sophisticated things in the crates, but we liked this coffee table because it would give us some more space for all of Peyton's things. Help us keep it off the floor easily.
Ok so maybe the stuff isn't going to stay off the floor for very long....but we have a place to put it when she goes to bed!!
I am in love with doing wood projects now!! My next project is another coffee table I found on Pinterest, but I want to turn it into a craft table for Peyton with a paper roll attached!
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