Upcycled Magazine Crate Caddy

Keeping it real here, friends. I received some disappointing news that due to supply costs, I may be facing some real challenges to build the shed this spring (or even this year). I’m trying not to give up, but I have to be honest that I do feel pretty down about it. But I’m going to keep believing and keep moving forward!

To keep my spirits up, I decided to do a little weekend project Saturday (yes, this was all done within a few hours!) with a vision I had to repurpose this old crate.

First of all, can we appreciate the print on this? A nice nod to the grit part of my work – old bolts, screws, etc. We found this at an antique store so long ago, I don’t even remember how much we paid for it. It’s 10 x 10 and before I got started, I wanted to make sure it would work for my plan of a magazine storage.

My idea was to have this be a rolling caddy near the daybed and seating in the “soul shed,” so my first easy add was caster wheels. Since my son tore down his mom-made desk, I had these bases leftover. May as well use the wheels. I always leave a bit of space from the edge so that you don’t see the silver bases quite so obviously.

Now I can’t do an upcycle with just one simple change. My next idea was to line the inside of the crate (although it’s really quite clean) with some fabric. I didn’t want to have to cut and sew, so instead I just folded the extra material to make 4 corners. Then, I used Stitch Witchery to iron them in place. This stuff is magical for making seams. When you place it between two pieces of fabric and iron, it becomes like glue (follow the directions for best results!). I pinned the folds first to keep them intact while I pulled the fabric out. My biggest takeaway is to do just one corner at a time. Mine didn’t end up perfect, but it does the job!

With the corners all ironed together, I still needed to keep it in place. I bought these silver nail heads at JoAnn Fabrics (with 40% coupon – thank you, sweet sales girl!!). I did not put them right next to each other because I felt that might show off any mistakes on spacing I make, so I went about one apart.

Here is the final result! It fits about 50 magazines. And yes, I have way too many magazines. It will be nice to store my favorites in the shed for any visitors to peruse.