Crate expectations

Over on Pinterest I have a wonderful little collection of ideas for recycling pallets and crates, at one point I think it was becoming an obsession! Until recently that's all its been, an obsession - oops I mean a collection of ideas. And then I found Matey in Welshpool. You must forgive me, they all get called Matey by t'hubby and it can be rather confusing but that's off topic - Matey in Welshpool is a wood craftsman who has just made us some new windows for The Hovel but who also has a shed load of crates, quite literally. Ta da, oh how I drooled when I spotted them, oh the ideas that flew around my mind tumbling over each other in their haste to land uppermost. Somehow I managed to convince t'hubby that buying three was a good idea, my intention being to create some wall storage in the kitchen. Two were to be hung on the wall and the third would provide the wood needed for shelves inside the other two.  At £15 for the three of them I was well pleased. These were no ordinary crates, they're  bigger than your usual fruit crates and I did secretly suspect that they'd be too big for their stated purpose. I wasn't worried about that though, I knew I had a mountain of ideas.

Back at The Hovel they were indeed too large to be hung on the wall, they were actually rather heavy, but they were also the perfect height to act as benches around the kitchen table. Voila it would seem. Whilst moving around, giving them a quick spruce up etc, I had them stacked for a little while and of course I remembered that they looked fantastic as bookcases too. Sucker. In all I made two further trips and bought four more crates. I used two in the bedroom in my little corner to create a bookcase/display stand and the rest make up the new kitchen benches. I'm not intending to paint them, I may later on make some cushion pads for them but for now they're actually quite comfortable as they are (we did have to remove a few nails first).

I am so very pleased that I have finally acted upon at least one of these ideas that whizz around my head. And the downside? Oh dear, I did have to buy a new table as the old round one didn't quite cut it but hey, at least my benches were cheap!

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to leave me a comment.

PS, breaking news, I’ve spotted yet another fab idea and will be buying one more crate next visit, I’m on a roll see.

Wendy xx