DIY Vintage Crate Boot Rack Tutorial

Boots, shoes, jackets, gloves, scarves, hats, etc. All of the pain-in-the-butt winter gear you need if you live in an area with snow. Unfortunately for me, I live in one of those areas.

I am constantly trying to come up with systems to keep our family’s winter needs organized. I built this Mudroom Locker after being fed up with the mess of shoes and boots everywhere. Julie from Julie’s House, had a similar problem with her boots and shoes but no mudroom 🙁

So she came up with an adorable idea using wooden crates to create an area in her entrance to collect all those winter accessories. Like myself, she loves the ‘vintage’ look (I love vintage look everywhere so take every opportunity).

 

“I was using an old coat tree to handle the jackets and our boots and shoes were just thrown in a pile. The floor was covered with some cheap sheet vinyl, so when we tiled the kitchen floor we did this area too….and that motivated me to tackle some other improvements in this neglected and beat up space”.

She got inspired by Laura at Finding Home Farms but, instead of buying vintage crates (which were quite expensive!) she managed to get wooden crates for $10 and made them looked ‘vintage’.

 

DIY Vintage Crate Boot Rack Tutorial

Sometimes, a project has all the ingredients that make it perfection for me. This is one of them and Julie does an excellent job! Let’s have fun!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Large Wooden crates (used 6)
• 4 Pack 3″ Swivel Caster Wheels Rubber Base with Top Plate & Bearing Heavy Duty
• Wood stain, color of your choice
• Paint brush
• Rags
• Sandpaper
• Steel wool
• Tack cloth
• Cordless drill/driver
• Small wood screws
• 4 hooks for keys
• Wall Lenk L25TT Woodworker’s Transfer Tool
• Image from The Graphics Fairy – don’t forget to reverse it

WOODEN CRATE SHOE RACK TUTORIAL

Step 1: Stain

Stain the crates with Dark Walnut by Minwax.

Brush the stain on, let it sit for just a few minutes and then wipe it off with rag.

Step 2: Put Crates Together

Screw the crates together, using 4 horizontally and 2 vertically.

 

Step 3:

Add casters to the bottom so you can easily move the rack out to sweep underneath.

PRO-TIP:

Did you know that some casters rotate around in a circle and others just go back and forth in one direction? I didn’t realize this until I had them installed. If you’re going to add casters to your project, be sure to get the kind that rotate in a complete circle – they will say “Swivel” – it will make your life a lot easier. 

Step 4:

Next, you need to “age” the crates. I used a sanding block and some steel wool to take off some of the finish, focusing my attention around the edges.

Wipe it down with a tack cloth when you’re happy with how it looks.

Step 5: The Graphic

Add a graphic if you like. Since I didn’t have real vintage crates, I wanted to put some graphics on the rack to make it look more authentic.

I downloaded THIS image from The Graphics Fairy and attempted the wax paper method of transfer.

 

There are few tutorials on how to do this – basically you run wax paper through your printer to get the image.

Researching other methods, check out this tool:

It’s made to do exactly what you need to do!

Step 6: Transferring

Make a reverse image copy on an inkjet printer, heat the tool up for 8 minutes and press the image to your surface.

The heat transfers the toner to your project. Simple, right?

Since we want the vintage look, it doesn’t matter that the image only partially transferred –  it saves you from having to sand it down.

“I discovered that the printer you use for your image will affect what the transfer looks like. The image from my home printer didn’t completely transfer, but I had better luck with an image I sent to my local copy center. More toner maybe? If I was working on something like a sign where I needed a more complete transfer, I would go that route.” – Julie says

Step 7: Transferring

Add some hooks to the side to hold keys:

This is what it looks like in action:

I wanted to put a shallow basket on the top to hold sunglasses and gloves, and I originally picked up this lined wire basket from Michael’s:

Unfortunately it was too tall for the space – it was too close to the sconce and it looked funny.

So recently picked up this stack of black wire letter trays from the thrift store, 5 for $3. When I got them home I realized they don’t stack, which made them a lot less useful for my home office.

I spray painted one of them flat nickel and added a liner from another basket and it worked perfectly.

Order has been restored! Having an organized spot to put everything makes us less inclined to use the area as a dumping ground and it’s definitely a more pleasant sight when we walk in the door.

And that is it!

Thanks so much for reading and wishing you a great day!