Wine crate staining

Today I worked on a few wine crates that I picked up for $7 apiece from a local woman trying to get rid of her boxes.  After completion, I WANT MORE.  I’m very tempted to email her back and see if she got any new stock.  I don’t know if she belongs to a bunch of wine clubs or is a vendor, but I’d like to repurpose them for storage.  I have ideas for some storage options, but don’t know if I need that many more.  There is a fine line between want and need.  98% of the time I just want stuff.  This is also why I craft.  I told a friend of mine that I like having things, but I can’t always afford all the things I see in catalogs.  Let’s just say that I’m materialist but practical.  That is why I do what I do.  My crafts may not come out as perfectly as a product from West Elm or Pottery Barn, but it adds character and I get it at a fraction of a cost with a similar look. 

There were some large shipping labels on the crates that took a while to get off.  Since the wood was raw and untreated, I didn’t want to use Goo Gone.  After trying to use my nails for a little while, my Dad helped me break out the belt sander.  What a difference it made. Zip, zip and the labels were gone.  My Dad also helped me remove the staples that were left in the box edges to speed up the process. 

 I used a can of “Cherry” wood stain that my Dad had leftover in his cabinet.  I did the first two boxes in the cherry stain, but thought that it was a little light.  The stain wasn’t much deeper than the original raw wood color.  Even after setting for a few days, the cherry is still a little light for my taste.  For the other three boxes I switched to a “Dark Walnut” wood stain that I had used for another project when I first moved into our apartment. It’s nice because a little bit of stain goes a long way in the dark color.  With the Cherry color, I was slopping it on in hopes of making it look darker.  I saw on a DIY show that stain application is much easier and smoother with an old rag rather than a brush.  I liked the outcome much better because there weren’t any streaks and it was much faster to do all five boxes.  

All-in-all, I really like the way the boxes turned out and have big plans for them.  I think after writing this post that I may have convinced myself that I “need” more boxes. 

Before

After

This is the difference between the Cherry and the raw.  I like the darkness on the edges of the wood, but the face didn't turn out as dark.

After settling for a few days, the dark boxes took on a more rich color rather than the dark-black look they have here.  I'm not sure why the box closest to us has the spot that took on a lot of the stain.  Maybe it was just they way the wood was in that area.  In person it looks kind of neat because it is right in the body of the lion brand.