Wooden Crates - Decorating Ideas You Can Copy

Wooden crates decorating ideas that you can copy in today’s post!

I’m inspired by some of the displays that I recently saw when out shopping and have adapted to my own style. I love fast and not too complex, and I am guessing that you do too.

Crates are one of my secret weapons for many household needs from entertaining to storage and carting things around. I have probably far too many crates and should downsize at some point (and I promise…I will) but hardly a week goes by where I don’t use a crate and you should too! Here are some of my favorite ways

Wooden Crates Decorating Ideas To Copy

Are you drawn to creative ways to display things in your home without taking a lot of time to overthink it? I am not a fan of homes looking like stores when it comes to vignettes and generally prefer less is more rather than overstuffed. The less stuff you have crammed into a room it makes the eyes draw in to what you’re trying to highlight. In the years that I had rooms in antique malls and did well selling vintage objects you HAD TO take advantage of every square inch of rented space. I learned to stack up as high and mighty as possible…and then of course there was the ceiling to hang things from too! Oftentimes I enlisted the help of a few crates stacked my on top of each-other to pile high with products, but I don’t want that look in my home and prefer to use my crates carefully. Here my tips du jour…

1. Drink Caddy and Bottle Display

There isn’t a flea market or vintage store around that doesn’t have a selection of vintage crates, as they were commonplace back in the day of home delivered milk and seltzer. I’m sure that you’ve seen the Coke crates that have compartmental dividers and there are reproductions on the market today too.

wooden-crates-decorating-ideas vintage french bottles

Why not repurpose them as a thing of beauty and if you collect old bottles (yes, I collect those…in case you were wondering ;-)) artfully place them inside for an instant way to DECORATE WITH A CRATE. Bottles just look appealing when displayed in multiples and here are some tips for FLOWER DISPLAY IN BOTTLES.

This butler’s table is so handy and I use it as a bar cart, but here I plopped the crate inside and filled it with this jaunty collection of color.

Old soda crates have those wooden divided sections that generally can be removed if you want one long crate. Weather permitting we eat outside, so a crate is perfect for gathering up flatware, glasses and napkins to cart out HERE.

2. Food or Flower Storage

Canned foods, in the pantry with jars of pickles or storage of linens are fantastic storage options if you have vintage or new crates.

I have a vintage blueberry crate and sewed a liner for it and store flowers to dry out in my studio for creative project like wreaths. See how to make some pretty FALL WREATHS in THIS post. Find some tips on HOW TO DRY FLOWERS here.

3. Storage for Dishes and Plates

Several years back I purchased a pair of VINTAGE EUROPEAN FRUIT CRATES and they come in handy for storing dishes and plates.

These are actually two fruit crates stacked on top of each other and when I want to have plates handy or just to have them out for display they work well.

The rustic nature of raw wood crates with a more refined style is something that calls to my vintage loving heart. You can find new crates but they just don’t have the patina and wear and when displaying my antique French terre de fer collection it works. You can use new WHITE DINNERWARE and all new pieces if you prefer…just make the look you love because it’s your home. I think that these are dutch, but I’m not sure. They are old…look at the telephone number!

5. Seasonal Display

More of that desireable rustic look and played up against the luxe silk velvet of the pumpkins it serves to give great contrast!

I’ve mixed in some of those fabulous faux florals that I talked about in THIS POST, and you can use my discount code at any time to shop!

The bonus of rectangular crates is that you can turn them anyway and utilize for either display OR storage…or both!

So drag those crates out of the garage and if you don’t have any, I think that you might be surprised how handy they can be! Do you have any other uses for crates that you’d like to add into the comments?

Simple Foolproof Ways To Decorate With Crates

Comments

Cecilia from Georgia says

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Crates! I haven’t thought about using them for so many different purposes. Would you paint them when they’re ugly or maybe a white wash? Thanks for the ideas.

- Janet says
  
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  I definitely would not hesitate to paint or whitewash crates when they are grungy…yes!
  
Deborah Bell says

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Love the vignettes using crates, your imagination has no boundaries!! Please enter me in the drawing this week.

Wooden Crates – Decorating Ideas You Can Copy