Thanks so much for your sweet comments on this Christmas Crate that I shared with you the other day. I always appreciate hearing from you. As promised, I am sharing with you HOW I made this DIY Crate so that you can learn how to build a crate too.
Like I mentioned in a previous post, if you are not inclined to using power tools and building your own crate, you can buy a crate at Michael’s. They are unfinished so you could paint it a color of your choice or stain it. OR…you can make one!
If you make one you will need some wood. I found this wood in an old pasture and the owner gave it to me for FREE! I LOVE the color of aged wood so I personally did not do anything special with the wood. If you don’t have old wood, you can always use new lumbar and then paint or stain it, or you can google how to age new wood. I have never done it…but have heard you can do it with good results.
You will need the following to build your own crate:
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a 24 x 14 inch piece of base material (we used left over MDF board)
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Six 1×4 boards 24 inches in length (this was the size of the boards we used)
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Six 1×4 boards about 15 inches in length
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Six 1×2 boards 9.5 inches tall which is about 1 inch shorter than the height of the crate (we cut 1×4’s in half)
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nail gun (or hammer and nails)
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wood glue
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drill
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jigsaw
1. Attach the front and back bottom boards to the base with some wood glue and nails.
2. Attach the vertical support board to both ends of the bottom board and then in the middle with wood glue and nails.
3. Attach the side bottom boards in the same manner.
4. Attach the middle boards in the same manner.
5. Take your top side boards and cut out some handles using a jigsaw. We cut them into an oval shape. This is totally optional though.
6. Now attach your front, back, and side boards.
That. Is. It! Viola!! Your very own crate! Now you can make it your own and add a fun stencil to make it look like a vintage shipping crate…in this case, add a North Pole Freight Co. Stamp for some fun Christmas Décor.
To make my stencil, I simply designed it in my Silhouette program and then cut it out in some vinyl. I then pulled the lettering out of the stencil and created my own stencil so I could paint it onto my crate with some black paint.
Simply attach the vinyl to the crate and then take a brush and stencil right onto the crate. When the paint has dried simply peel away the vinyl.
Since the paint looked to “new” to look aged, I simply took a lightweight piece of sandpaper and gently scuffed up the lettering to give it an aged feel and look.
Fill the crate with some pine boughs, Christmas lights and some wrapped presents…in this case some empty boxes. I simply wrapped them with some brown paper and some linen grain sack gift bags. I actually made the linen grain sack bags and will be sharing that tutorial with you here soon as well!
And, because I like to share…I have provided the stencil for you to use as well. I have it as a svg Silhouette file or a pdf for you to download based on what will work best for you.
You can download the free printable here:
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Looking for a slightly different style of “vintage” crate? Check out this crate I made last year which is now perched in my family room!
Great tutorial…and I think I already have some great wood to use on this!
Yay! I would love to see it if you end up making it! xo
My husband purchased some pine wood and made up several crates for me. I cut out the stencil and used a black permanent marker to draw it with. He is going to age the wood with a vinegar & steel wool mixture. My question is, should I put that permanent marker on before he ages the wood or after – or does it matter? We are giving them to several of our nieces at our family Christmas gathering this Saturday, the 20th, so I’m running out of time to experiment :-) Hoping someone here has already tried it and can advise. Thanks!
Love, love this! My husband just bought a new saw and now I know what his first project will be with it. Just need to find me some old wood in a pasture somewhere :)!!
Hehe! What a lucky guy! I am sure he will be thrilled with any excuse to use his new saw! ;)
I had already pinned this and love that you now have the tutorial; do you have the stencil as a svg file for the silhouette?
Yes Karen! I was having trouble uploading it but went another route. Let me know if you are not able to download it!
When I try to download the stencil it comes up as sugar scrub labels. Am I doing something wrong?
Try it again Katie! I fixed the wording there since there have been others having trouble finding the right place to download! Let me know if you still can not get it and I can send it to you or figure out what is up!
How about you just make one for me, mmmmkay? Thanks.
LOVE this sooo much.
You know I would! Come see me so you can take it home!!
LOVE THIS! You can seriously make any room look cute by adding a crate!
ha! So true. It should be in the decorating 101 handbook!
So cute Amy! I love the stencil you did too. Cute idea!
xoxo
Thank you Jen! xo
OK, Now that is CRAZY awesome! You must be a whiz at the jigsaw, because anytime I use mine it NEVER turns out like that! I have to sand and sand and sand to make it look almost uniform. I think you should make a video on that :-)
haha! I do like the jigsaw! I did have to do a bit of sanding on one edge though LOL!!
I love this idea. So many possibilities.
I do have a question about the stencil. Is this printed from a regular computer printer on to vinyl?
I printed it out on a Silhouette machine which cuts vinyl. But…you can use the pdf and make an old fashioned stencil. I did that because I know many do not have a Silhouette or vinyl machine.
Love the crate!!!! Only problem is I am also getting the sugar scrub page with the stencil link :D I’m pinning this in hopes I can find the time to make one soon :D
Did you still need the right link? Let me know if you are still having trouble and I can send it over!
Thanks so much for sharing the tutorial !! Just love this crate!
Erika
Thank you Erika! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Amy!! This is so cute! I love that you made this and yet it looks so old. Very fun DIY! Great job!
Thank you so much Kami! xo
Amy- You are one talented Momma!! Looks Great. Thank you for sharing that stencil.
Thank you Holly! You are too kind!
Hi, Do I print out the part A and B and print them separately? Also, do you put a vinyl sheet in your printer and just print on it? Thanks.
I’m assuming now after reading you need a silhouette to print this out on right?
You can print them out and cut them out and use them like an old fashioned stencil or use transfer paper and then paint it on. Or…you can use a silhouette or cricut machine.
I just love this, Amy. I definitely want to make one next year. Great idea!!
Thank you so much Kristyn!
This is AWESOME! It’s so funny because I just built a crate for a special Christmas project. This morning I was going to stencil something fun and Christmas-y on it. So I googled “crate stamps” just to get some inspiration before I created my own on my Silhouette. And Lo and behold, you did the work for me. Thanks a ton!! I’ll be sharing mine on Monday and I’ll link back and give you credit for the stamp. This just saved me at least an hour. :)
Love the crate. Where can we get the reindeer?
The reindeer are from Michaels. I spray painted them white. They came gold.
I love this it’s gorgeous! Is the stencil reusable? I’m looking at investing in the Silouette but it intimidates me
Love This!! Do you remember where you got your lights? Love the size of them
Thanks!!
Yes…they were from Michaels.
Love the crate… but I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but I can’t find the Shilouette file download link! I have the crate, just need the wording! Thanks for posting it…
Jodi
Let me see if it is working properly. You might need to get on a laptop or desktop if you are on a mobile device!
I clicked on the link for the crate stencil and it says “this page can’t be displayed”…….what am I doing wrong ?
OMG! This is the cutest thing I have seen this year. I am in love with this crate. I have a rustic theme going on and this would fit in so nicely. Thanks so much for the tutorial and the download although I don’t have a silhouette (yet) so I may have to come up with my own.
I personally made a box similar to this for a friend recently and aged the wood with things from around my home!
Make a batch of hot tea (black)
Paint it on the wood (make sure to cover every crevasse)
Let a handful of steal wool sit in a mason jar of apple cider vinegar over night.
Stir and paint it on the wood and let dry.
I have pictures, but cannot post them on this msg.
I looked for the stencil on your FB site and couldn’t find it.
Having a hard time downloading the stencil for an svg file. When I download, I am unable open in my sure cuts a lot program. Is it something I am doing wrong.
Could you tell me what kind of lights those are? Thank you