DIY Spice Packet Organizer and other Wooden Crates for your Space
Who’s ready to get a little more organized!?
Today I wanted to share a quick tutorial with you, for these simple, antiqued (totally Pottery Barn lookin’) storage crates that I made for the DIY Blogger house project.
When Daybreak contacted me a few months ago, and asked if I’d be a part of helping design/decorate the DIY Blogger house, the first thing I asked was… “What space would you like me to help with?” There was a long pause and then Aly (the coordinator) said…”Well, you ARE ‘the pantry girl’, sooooo…”
LOL! I guess there are weirder things to be known for right?
🙂
In the end, as you might have read a few posts back, I ended up helping design the dining room and custom hutch as well, with Brian Clark. SO much fun!
But since I AM totally obsessed with pretty/cute organizing, I really WAS excited to take on this little pantry space, and find a few more creative ways to maximize storage in there.
In our pantry at home the two MOST clutter prone items for me were always spice packets and cereal boxes/bags. So to fix this problem I purchased a simple tin box from IKEA, for spice packets and also found a $1 wire basket from our local thrift store to house all of our cereal.
A lot of you loved these ideas, but were having a hard time actually finding the exact same items to use in your own pantries. So I got my wheels turning and started thinking about the vintage DIY crates that we built for extra storage in our new entryway nook. They were SO simple, pretty inexpensive to make, and could be customized to any shape or size.
So I decided that I would use this same technique to build a few custom crates and small boxes for the DIY Blogger house pantry too! You can see our original tutorial for the large vintage looking crates here, with step by step instructions.
The #1 tip I can give you, if you’re going to be building these lightweight, customizable crates, is to use the pre-cut wood that you can find on the bottom shelves of your local hardware store. They are AWESOME for projects like this and are already pre-sanded and ready for paint or stain; saving you lots of time!
We’ve also used these slats in different sizes for lots of other projects, like our backsplash in the kitchen and decorative trim in our girls’ rooms. They’re fantastic!
We built a couple of different sized crates for the pantry. For the larger one, that we put cereal in, we had to reinforce it with a few triangular shaped posts on each of the four corners. To make those, we just cut a square board down the center. Then we measured how long and wide we wanted our crate, cut the wood to those dimensions, and started building!
The reason you want supports on either side, for the larger boxes, is so that you have something substantial to nail into, and also so the box stays strong and stable when you’re lifting and pulling on it.
All we used to construct the boxes were small finishing nails and wood glue.
The whole process is really straight forward. As long as your pieces are all cut correctly, putting a box together is easy as pie! We didn’t do any fancy 45 degree angles or nothin’! 🙂
To make the individual slots for multiple items, we just took some extra wood, cut it to the height and width we needed, used a guide to make sure they were all spaced evenly, and that was it!
Once the boxes were built, I just gave them a quick sanding around the edges, to smooth out any sharp corners, then used RustOleum’s Early American wood stain and gave each of the crates a few good coats.
As you can see, I didn’t bother filling in any holes, or sanding anything perfectly. But I feel like that’s what gives these unique boxes all their character!
The decorative glass knob was purchased at Hobby Lobby for a few dollars.
I love the way these vintage-looking crates turned out, and really do think that they are a great option for helping things stay in their place and organized for a pantry or small closet space. Plus, you can customize them to whatever size, shape and color you need, so no matter what, they’ll always match your decor!
This post and project was brought to you by Homes.com, who as one of the nation’s top online real estate destinations, is inspiring consumers to dream big. From affordable houses to luxurious estates, condos and more, Homes.com features more than four million property listings and a user-friendly format, making finding your next home or a licensed real estate agent easy.
If you head on over to visit the Homes.com blog you will find a collection of posts on DIY projects, painting, gardening and more. Homes.com is an inspiring and engaging partner in every phase of the home buying process and we have LOVED writing for them each week!
Tiffany says
Love this. Need this!!!
Tiffany @ at-altitude.com
Ruby Jean says
Okay you seriously need to come over and Organize my pantry… We are overflowing with Mason Jar bottles HUGE bulk Organic Items and the list goes on… 🙂 Very cute spice organizer!!
Grabbing My Happy says
Okay. That is stinkin' ADORABLE. Love the idea and totally doable! *high five*
Melissa Coleman says
love it! There are so many different things you could do with this little organizer. 🙂
xoxo,
Melissa
Traci@ Beneath My Heart says
Love all of your organizing ideas, as always!
xoxo
KathEats says
I love your pantry so, so much!!
Ranelle says
Thanks so much for this tutorial! I've been waiting for you to post it since I saw the finished product at the DIY Blogger house 🙂 I plan to make 2 of these, one for spice packets & one for tea/hot cocoa. These are cute, clever, & the perfect addition to any pantry!
Maria M. says
What a great project idea — I love the way it turned out. It definitely looks like something that you would buy for an expensive price in a boutique-y store. Very, very pretty, and the knob is awesome!
Printing Ray says
Great idea. Ive a lot of things to keep and I think that there is no way better than organizing like this. Love your pantry.
Anonymous says
I have a wire basket like the one you show above…and found out they're wire baskets from chest freezers…like my parents had when I was a kid. We (as kids) would almost fall into the freezer while looking for something mom said was there for sure! The easiest things for kids to find were in those wire baskets in the freezer because they were near the top!
I do love your tutorial…. you make it seem so doable!!! (I can barely hang a picture on the wall. barely.)
Les says
Sister, is there anything you CAN'T do?!?! This is amazing. I love it!
Kirstie says
I loved this in the DIY Blogger House! The crystal knobs are my favorite! I need some to use in my bathroom for some storage!
hydrangealove.blogspot.com
Lori says
Love it!!
Jen says
Love the warm character the boxes bring in addition to their great storage!
rivka says
Whoa GURL you are lookin' GOOOOOD! How superficial am I? You spend all that time writing and photographing this wonderful and helpful post and all I can think of is how great you are DOING and how wonderful you look in that top picture….let me sidetrack here by saying great job on all your hard work and I do not mean the crates! (-:
Jeannie-JB says
I love the little drawer that you made for spice packets! So much that I just consulted the Mr. and he said we have the tools and he could help me make one just like that – I'm so excited! I love the knob – it's really beautiful. Your pantry rocks – great job!
jbsvintage.com
Anonymous says
Wow! I didn't think these boxes looked terribly hard or anything but I can't believe how easy they actually are. I am definitely going to be doing this when I get around to organizing the pantry and closets in my house. Thanks for the tips on pre-cut wood, I really wouldn't have thought of that!
Aneta Kudasik says
So pretty! I wish I had a saw to make stuff from wood! LOVE IT
Vhv1123 says
How do you find the time to do these things with three kids!!! I have one toddler and just bought a house and am dreaming of the day my house can look put together and organized. Not to mention have the time to do all those awesome crafty things. Your so talented. So must watch no tv and have a in home cook, LOL jk.
Anonymous says
Have recently redone our pantry (see my post!) and also am working on the linen closet. This past weekend we took down HUGE floor to ceiling, 18 foot wide bookcases in our great room that my hubby had built. We had a few reasons for taking them down, even though we did love them, one main reason being we installed new floors and needed to get under them! Now we have a TON of stained, great wood in our garage from the bookcases! I totally am showing the hubby your wooden boxes and we will, I mean he will, be making some of those! I love the rope on the ends.
just ask beth says
I just wanted to say:
A). you are Amazing!
B). your Beautiful!
C). you are Creative!
ds says
I am going to attempt these cute boxes on my own…did you use a staple gun to attach the boards together?
Sheena says
Super cute!
The Style Sisters says
I saw the Daybreak home tonight and looooved it!! All of you bloggers did such a fantastic job!! I loved your pantry and all the details. I am a Daybreak resident and was so excited to see bloggers were involved in the decor of this home. Great job!!
Karin
Anonymous says
LOVELY PICS:)
Your blog is so wonderful and Im following..I hope you follow me also:)
If you want some cute Swedish décor inspiration, check out my blog:)
Have a great week dear
LOVE Maria at inredningsvis.se
(Sweden)
Unknown says
What color did you paint the white cabinet?
Liz says
Love it and love your blog. Yours and YHL are my two faves. Well I stip by a lot for good ideas. Love the box but FYI they don't have that nice wood area for projects at my Home D and Menards where we live. : ( at least not that I've ever seen. They do have lots of long boards though and my hubby has a table saw. So he could help with the cutting.
You do look great also. Have you posted on your weight loss journey? Must be hitting some goals because you look great. Keep it up.
Melanie@Crafty Cupboard says
I feel like I need to come clean here… for a while I never read your blog because I don't have a house and can't make changes to ANYTHING, but one day I wondered what you had been up to and now I CAN'T STOP reading your posts! 🙂 Although, I am more house-hungry now than ever! Rude 😉
So, in short, you are awesome.
The end.
How2home says
this is awesome!
Jean says
These boxes are great. I too use boxes and baskets for some of my stuff. It is so much easier to find.
For those that don't have saws: There are a number of people around who do woodworking, intarsia or crafts, who have all the right equipment, if you don't and might do some up for not too much.