Wine Crate Bookshelves

So I haven't posted anything in almost three months. No I didn't die or give up on this blog. Much more exciting that that: I moved to California. So moving, finding a new job and then a new apartment has kind of been all consuming of my life. But I am back now with so much amazing stuff to share. I am working on a gazillion projects to get my apartment all in order and here is the first installation: Wine Crate Bookshelves.

I love these shelves from DesignedforUse on Etsy but at $275 a pop they were a little out of my price range.  Luckily I was able to find a man who had tons of old wine crates and was able to create my own. So here is how I made them:

Crates
Piece of wood to help sturdy the book shelf
Power Drill
Drill bits
Screws
Stain


Find some crates. Look on craigslist. Or buy some from the craft store.

Stain your crates. I used Ebony stain from Home Depot. I used the staining technique described in Young House Love (which might be my new favorite blog. Just saying) to make new wood look old.  Wear gloves or you'll end up with hands like mine.

Sand down any parts that are too dark.

Screw the crates together. Make sure you screws are long enough to go through both crates but don't go all the way through the second crate.

Take you piece of wood and attach to back of crates. Drill holes in the wood first to keep it from cracking.

Add a piece of nylon ribbon to the top. Use this to secure it to the wall. Mine were still a little wobbly and this definetly made me feel much better about them. Throw a few picture frames on top to hide that part.

A couple of things I noticed:

Make sure all your crates are pretty much the same dimensions. When I was picking mine out there were some that were as much as 1/2 inch deeper. That would make for a slightly wonky bookcase.

When I was screwing the crates together they didn't exactly lie flat against each other. This is ok as long as they are securely connected. When you add the stabilizing board it will help to keep them together as well.

There is a slight hight difference in my two shelves. It doesn't bother me but it did mean that one of the stabilizing boards is slightly too tall. I only measured one bookshelf and it happened to be the taller one. I might go back and cut off the extra but I doubt it. If this is something that would bother you make sure that you measure both shelves before getting your wood cut.

PS. I just had the guys at home depot cut the stabilizing boards for me