Vintage Soda Storage Crates

 

Vintage Soda Crates Finished Titled

Hi everyone!  I’m Amy from My 3 Monsters and I am thrilled to be back here at Reasons to Skip the Housework this month sharing another fun and easy craft with y’all –  Vintage Soda Storage Crates – Easy crafting — mixed with  healthy doses of cheap and fast — is kinda’ my specialty.  We all want to make pretty things, right?!  Without breaking the bank … and in our “spare time” … Seems impossible?  Psshht!  We got this!!  Recently I found some vintage soda labels that I thought were super cool.  I decided to make some “old” storage crates for my boys’ bedroom with them.  They ended up costing about $6 each and took 30 minutes to create both of them. That’s pretty doable, isn’t it?

Vintage Soda Crates Step 1

Begin by purchasing unfinished wood crates at your local craft store.  With a coupon on my smartphone I got 2 for $11 and change.  Remove any price tags and stickers that may be on them.  I didn’t bother to sand the rough edges at this point because I liked the rustic look they had.

Vintage Soda Crates Step 2

Using  any paint you have handy, roughly paint the interior and exterior of the crates.  I do mean roughly, too.  I really wanted them to look like they have seen better days.  You can paint them as much or as little as you like.  I find that the more inexpensive the brush you use, the better this style of painting will turn out.  This is a perfect opportunity to use those super cheap chip brushes, but I would steer clear of foam brushes for this.  The rough wood will shred them.

Vintage Soda Crates Step 3

I was serious about making these crates look old and used, so once the paint was dry I sanded it off a little in some places and used a distressing ink pad to darken up the edges and add some grunge to it.  They are starting to look exactly how I want them!  Now we just have to add the vintage soda labels.  You can find a bunch of cool designs in this Flikr set.  Katy Beck has made them available for personal use under a Creative Commons license. {Thanks so much Katy!}  Just download and print your favorite designs right on your home printer.

Vintage Soda Crates Step 4

My husband is Canadian so we HAD to use the Royal Canadian label for one of them!  Cut out the label , then paint a thin coat of matte finish Mod Podge onto the front of the crate.  Position the label on top of the Mod Podge and press into place gently.  It’s OK if the paper ripples a little bit — that just adds to the aged look.  Seal the image in place by painting another thin coat of Mod Podge on top and allowing it to dry.  If you want to age the crate even further, once the Mod Podge is dry you can gently sand the label to distress it a bit.

Vintage Soda Crates Finished 2

You could also dry-brush over the label like I did on the Squirt crate.  Dip a very dry paint brush into your paint then brush almost all of it off onto a paper towel before gently brushing across the label to dull it down and make it look older.

Vintage Soda Crates Finished 1

I am in love with these funky Vintage Soda Storage Crates!  They will be perfect for keeping my boys’ junk stowed away on the shelves in their bedroom and they are so much more fun to look at than plain old baskets.  They’ll really add to the vintage industrial vibe we are trying to create in there.

If you guys like what you see, hop on over and visit me at My 3 Monsters for tons more easy, fast and cheap craft ideas.  Thanks for letting me hang out here today, Melanie!