Distressed Crate Table!

July 21, 2019

Distressed Crate Table!

During our spring cleaning and organizing, particularly of many craft items, we looked around Wal-Mart and decided on what we wanted but had to wait until pay day and I’m so glad we did because they put all the stuff we wanted on clearance and even some stuff we looked past because of price we got because it was clearance down really well and we were thrilled. I also wound up buying 4 wooden crates over the next week during the clearance down time.

One I spray painted with Modern Mint color Satin Spray Paint and used to house my old magazines under our living room table. One I painted with Coral color Satin Spray Paint and made into a Bedroom nightstand and one I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. Then the fourth and last I used to make a distressed wooden crate table for our living room to house keys and wallets when we come in.

When I saw the wooden crates originally $12.98 now $7 I was excited and knew I could do some cool stuff with them. So I went to looking at what others had done and they decorated and made tables look pretty cool. This one lady distressed hers and put it in her living room and I loved the effect of the distressing as I’ve seen others do it and was excited to try it myself. I decided to use the white school glue method instead of using a store bought crackle medium. Also I was excited to use chalk paint to paint the table as I had yet to have used it because I always thought it was a bit pricy. At the Wal-Mart where we work they only have the 8 ounce bottle of Waverly’s chalk paint for $5.98 but I didn’t need that much and didn’t want to pay that even though it’s a good price if painting larger pieces. So I remembered a Wal-Mart near by had smaller bottles and so we went and I was happy they had 2 ounce bottles for $1.68 a piece and so I was happy to get just what I needed at a price I was happy with. I bought one in Lagoon color, one in Ivory and one in Moss color.

This project took about 6 to 8 hours to finish given breaks and dry time as I wanted to get it right but you can probably do it quicker than I did but it was a nice lazy day off for crafting so I took my time! I painted the outer part of the wooden crate with the lagoon color chalk paint and I love how you don’t use very much to cover areas when using chalk paint so a little goes a long way. I then painted the inside of the crate using the moss colored chalk paint. Touchups and all I used the whole bottle of the lagoon and ivory colors but have moss left. I later found out through trial and error that I can use a base of chalk paint and mix with regular acrylic paint and make my own colors that are still easily distressed and have the texture of chalk paint which I love!!

Once the inside and outside of the crate was dried I then used one of the natural paint brushes yet again and applied uneven layers of white school glue to the sides, usually three wooden bars at a time because you have to put the top layer of paint over the glue before the glue completely dries. So I applied a top layer of chalk paint in Ivory color over the glue. To quicken the drying process I put the crate in front of our box fan for a few mins for each section and I have to say I didn’t think the glue process would work well but it did and I am beyond happy with the result.

It looks like a very aged ocean inspired look with these colors. I think drift wood or ocean creatures or seashells would look good with this look but that doesn’t fit our living room theme so I put our love never fails shadow box and topiary’s in there instead and then later put a distressed milk bottle on top with daisy flowers coming out of the top, not shown in the images here but will show it in the post of the milk bottle later.

Depending on the colors and effect you go for the style choices could be nearly endless plus to add more character you can age it more with dark wax or other methods to add a dirty look but with mine I liked the new old look.

Oh also I bought 3 early American table legs at Menards as they only had 3 left of that size and theme and on clearance. I didn’t have a drill for the holes so instead my husband used a screw driver to make a hole and then screwed in the legs and it worked perfectly.