Rustic DIY Wood Organizer Crates
I’m frugal! You’ll learn that quickly! When we moved into our house a couple years ago, the laundry and washer were in an “add on” part of the house. Other than 2 windows and a door there was nothing else in the room. No shelves, wood organizer crates, or racks – literally nothing, nada!
I initially petitioned to move the laundry to the basement. It had a place to store cleaners, somewhere to fold laundry, and a cute 4″ deep sink for soaking dirty stuff (not quite sure how that was considered a utility sink?!). After Jason reminded me carrying baskets up and down the stairs with little kids under foot would get old fast; I relented.
Organization Planning Ahoy!
Immediately, I went into planning mode. I figured out what kind of cabinets to put up and considered open shelving, tall storage for brooms, vacuum, etc. I even drew up a sketch showing Jason what it would look like. It was a sure sell!
Then we started looking at what everything would cost. Even if we installed everything ourselves; it was more than I wanted to spend on a room that I do laundry in. Back to square one and stacking things on the floor!
Revised Organization Plan
Fast forward a year – I really started getting the itch to organize the laundry room again! If you know me at all – you know how much I live and breathe organization! Unfortunately, a lump of money hadn’t been dropped into my lap yet. So, I started scrounging around (aka: asking family members) for furniture/cabinet pieces, storage bins/crates, and other things that could be repurposed.
We got Jason’s grandparent’s old entertainment center and the top part of a kitchen cabinet being discarded because it the wrong color. My plan was to paint whatever I found, so miss-matching was not an issue. Best of all they cost me $0.00! Now I just needed some wood organizer crates to store everything in. None of the dimensions I needed were readily available; so it meant I would need to make them myself. I was up for the challenge!!!
Tools Needed
Miter Box, Table Saw, Brad Nailer and Nails, Clamps, Wood Glue, Wood Filler, Orbital Sander, Sanding Discs, Square, Tape Measure, Pencil (Optional: Crate Hardware)
crate dimensions
- Crate: 25″ long x 8.75 ” wide x 9″ high
- Crate bottom: 24″ long x 7.75″ wide
- Underlayment: 0.25″
The base part of my crates are all the same, so I found it easiest to do each step for all 3 crates at once, which made it an assembly line of sorts. Of course, you can always change the dimensions to fit your specific needs!
Wood Organizer Crates Instructions
Step 1.) Plan how you want your crates to look and what overall size is needed. (IE: Do you want the same height boards all the way around? Do you want to see the end grain of the side boards from the front? Do you want to use the same type wood? Etc.)
I didn’t want to see the end grains, and wanted a clean, open “box” look when looking into the crate (if using the same width boards, a corner brace in each corner board is required), so I opted to use different widths. The boards were randomly sized cast offs we had laying around. Once I had them picked out; I laid them out on the garage floor and moved them around until I reached the overall desired height.
Step 2.) Measure and cut your base pieces using the miter box. My front and back boards were 25″ long by 5.75″ high. My side boards were 7.25″ long by 3″ high (remember I didn’t want to see end grain, so I subtracted the thickness of my front and back boards (0.75″ * 2 = 1.50″) from my overall depth of 8.75″).
Step 3.) Measure and cut the underlayment for the bottom of the crate using the table saw. Important to do this now; as the bottom piece will be used to help align your front, back, and side pieces.
Step 4.) Using the table saw, cut a slot slightly wider than 0.25″ and 0.25″ deep into the inside of each base board about 0.1875″ from the bottom edge. This is where the bottom of your crate will set into. You’ll want to check the width of the slot to ensure a nice snug fit. Adjust as needed. We used a scrap piece of wood to test our measurements first, which I highly recommend.
Step 5.) Give the boards and underlayment a sanding. I had a few rough edges, so I did a quick round with the orbital sander using 80 grit. It will be much harder to sand the corners once assembled; if in doubt, just do it now!
Step 6.) Attach one side to the front. Make sure you’re slots for the underlayment are aligned. Run a bead of wood glue slightly shorter than the side piece, along the front board and set the side board on top. Clamp the two boards together. Insert the underlayment into slots to ensure alignment – if needed adjust and re-clamp. Remove the underlayment. Then grab the brad nailer and place a nail every 1 – 1.50″ through the front board. Remove the clamp.
Step 7.) Attach the second side to the front following the above step.
Step 8.) Insert underlayment into slots in the crate.
Step 9.) Attach the back to the sides. Run a bead of wood glue along each side board and set the back board on top ensuring the underlayment sits in the slot. Clamp the boards together. Then grab the brad nailer and place a nail every 1 – 1.50″ through the back board. Remove the clamp.
Step 10.) Position the remaining boards on the front, back, and sides following the above steps.
Step 11.) Fill nail holes with wood filler. Allow wood filler to dry. Repeat as necessary until holes are filled.
Step 12.) Using the orbital sander, give the entire crate a good sanding using 120 and/or 220 grit. I wanted a more natural look, so I stopped at 120 grit. Remember people will be sticking their hands in and out – so don’t leave any rough spots or splinters! Wipe with a wet rag to remove sawdust.
Now the extra fun part – finishing your crate however you like! The above picture shows my crates raw; which looks pretty too, but I wanted a more uniform look for the big picture.
Finished Wood Organizer Crates
I had a lot of fun playing with different colors before making a final decision. The front boards are water stained dark brown. A lot of my wood was cedar, so I didn’t want to hide that awesome smell and left the back and sides raw! The crates are finished with a polyacrylic topcoat in matte finish.
The handles are 4.75″ screen door pulls and the corner brackets are 1.50″ corner braces. Since I was trying to achieve a somewhat vintage look; all hardware was spray painted Oil-Rubbed Bronze.
I no longer dread going into the laundry room, stuff is up off the floor, and most importantly – it’s easy to find! These wood organizer crates were just the beginning of my laundry room makeover. A couple years later, we finished the laundry room makeover at the ranch house!
