What to Know Before Making Furniture From Wooden Crates

One of the more popular crafts on social media is to convert wooden crates into furniture. This furniture can be everything from coffee tables to rolling organizers. These crafts and projects may look easy and ideal for your home, but there are a few things you need to know before you grab the materials and get started. Here are a few of those considerations.

Wood Crates are Ideal for Small Space Projects

When you first see a wooden crate project, you may not realize how small the finished project actually is. You may also not see a finished product scale or measurement either. Keep in mind that the average wood crate 18 inches by 12 inches. This is not the large. Therefore a coffee table project that uses four of the wooden crates, a base, and a small space for flowers or other items would be ideal for a small space living room, but not so much for a larger living room or family room area. They are also the ideal size for smaller nurses, office spaces, and children's bedrooms that may not have as much storage space as you would like.

Wood Crates are Not Pre-Treated

Another aspect of the wood crate projects you find on social media is that the wood crates are not pre-treated. This means what you usually find are raw wooden crates that need to be smoothed or sanded as well as stained. They also need to be treated if you will be using them for outdoor projects like outdoor tables, stands, planters, or organizational pieces. You will need to choose the right stain and treatment for the project and this may not be mentioned in the project details. If it is not, try to find a stain or treatment that is for all weather conditions and seals against bugs and rain. This will let you use the projects in a variety of ways and weather conditions.

Variety of Wood Crates

You should consider that wood crates come in a variety of styles. You may have some that are made from pallets while others are made from rough wood cuts that were discarded at the lumbar yard. You may also have some with handles while others slated boxes or even boxes with open slats. You will need to choose wisely for your project to make sure that it will fit together properly and work properly for your needs. For example, you can't just grab a few discarded ones since they may all be different. You need to find a set style and go with that. Handles would be ideal for organizational bins while a closed option may be more suited for outdoor planters or tables.

These considerations will help you find the right crates for your project and create the project end result that you want. Keep in mind, you can also find crates in more places than just craft stores and scrap yards. You can also find them in hardware stores.