Coke crate recycle

This post has been about 9 months in the making. I finally did something with our entryway. It's eclectic, colorful, and kind of rustic. It meets our typical requirement of not just "there" for the sake of being there, it can also be useful. 

Our living room has one big, long wall that needed something on it and we needed a space to put our books, Bibles, games, toys, etc...so I kept my eye out for a sofa/entryway table that would work for our needs/wants. 

I finally found one at a flea market last April and paid a great price for it. It actually was made to be an entertainment center for a flat screen. I loved it, but wasn't quite sure what to do with the small shelf that was made to hold a dvd player, etc. I would have loved for those to be drawers, but they weren't so I decided to try and put something in there that could be used as drawers. At first I thought of putting rustic looking baskets in there, which would have been fine but I already feel like I have too many baskets so I was determined to figure something else out.

The table, originally a blue-grey with a black shelf on bottom. I loved the blue-grey, but not the black, so I painted the whole thing blue :)

During our brief visit to Dublin, TX this last summer we found various treasures and one of them was a yellow coca-cola crate. I loved it because normally the only color I find those in is red and I decided to get it and figure out some way to use it later. Plus it was only $3, so that made it an even better find.

This Fall when I was still trying to figure out what to do with the small shelf on our entryway table I walked by the crate(that was just sitting in our garage) and had an idea. I decided to put it on the shelf to see if it fit in one of the slots(there were two). It fit perfectly and looked kinda funky(which I love) plus also matched the distressed look I gave the entryway table when I repainted it. It became my new "drawer" and because there were 2 slots I needed another crate. My husbands father has all kinds of *treasures* so we asked him if he happened to have a coke crate he didn't need and he did! I was pretty excited.

We put them both in the slots and liked it(well the hubbs was warming up to the brightness of it), but they needed something else to them. I decided to make rope pulls for each of the crates to give them more of the "drawer" look.

Here's my step-by-step:

1. First I headed to Ace and asked one of the salesmen if they had scratchy rope(yes, that's the official term). They did and it was only $.15 a foot. I got 2 feet.

2. Next I decided where I wanted the pulls to go...in the center, 2 inches from the top of the crate. My crate measured 18 1/2 " long, so I found the middle of the crate at 9 1/4". I wanted my rope pulls to be 4 inches wide so I measured 2 inches on each side of the middle point(at 7 1/4 and 11 1/4) and made a mark---making sure it was still two inches from the top as well. Confused yet?

3. Next find a drill bit that is the same width(or as close too) as your rope and put it in your drill. Drill your holes where you marked them on each crate.

4. Take your two foot piece of rope and tie a knot in the end of it. Starting on the inside of the crate pull the rope through one of the holes and then through the other hole(leaving some lose rope in the front to form the pull). Knot it and then cut off the excess. Repeat the process with the second crate.

5. And last we put felt circles on the bottom of each crate so they do not scratch the shelf.

And there ya go! I like how it turned out. Even the hubbs likes it a lot better now. It fits our crazy household/life.

They go pretty well with the distressed finish I gave the table, ha, and the brightness of the blue(I kinda love our random blue table)

And there ya have it. I definitely think it looks better in person, but what can ya do.

And by the way, the total cost of this drawer project was $3.30. Not too shabby. Happy recycling everyone!