Box Crate Book Shelves Tutorial

This little project came about because we had more books than shelf for a while and I wasn't finding something I liked at the store. I didn't really think bookshelves were in the realm of my DIY capabilities, but it turns out I was mistaken. This fun little boy bookshelf is a combination of my desperation + four box crates + RIT dye (of all things). I love that you can still see the grain of the wood, and they have some spunk to them for a kid's room. 

Supplies I Used:
   4 box crates
   1-2 RIT dye bottles
   Foam brushes
   Eyelet (screw in loopy thing) and ziptie 

To make them, I sanded some box crates that I bought at JoAnn's Fabric. 

Then I stained them, but instead of using normal wood stain I used water dyed with RIT dye. It came out exactly like I hoped it would- a spunky blue color that still showed the grain of the wood. BUT, it was super duper messy and drippy so I can't particularly recommend the method without giving the disclaimer that it's more of a pain than if you'd just use paint or actual wood stain. It just looks neat when it's done, and I liked for it to be blue. I didn't want to use paint because I didn't want it to chip or look bad after having lots of books sliding across it. 

Next, I stacked the crates like bookshelves, and my hubs glued them together with wood glue. He also clamped them while the glue dried so they were good and stuck together. Then he reinforced it with some staples from a staple gun. 

Last, we anchored it to the wall. This part is rather essential, because the shelf isn't terribly deep. If you place it on a hard wood floor it probably would be more stable than on carpet, but it's still easier to tip than other shelves just because it's more shallow. We screwed in a loopy thing to the wall (this is apparently called an Eyelet), and then used a zip tie around one of the wood slats to attach to the shelf to the loopy thing.  You could do this or just use some other concoction to anchor it to the wall. 

These shelves can also be finished out using wood stains for a totally different look. Here are some rather Pottery Barn-ish looking box crate shelves that I saw online:

That's it! If you give it a try, be sure to email me a picture of your finished shelf!