Rustic Wine Crates

We bought a bunch of these unstained, unsanded wine crates from Home Depot not long ago and were using them to store things like wine (go figure), extra blankets, etc. Finally I decided I wanted them to look nicer, so I bought some walnut stain and an orbital sander and got to it! As you may have guessed, it was not my idea to buy a power tool, but I have to admit it made all the difference. It's a relatively safe power tool to use and it makes the sanding so much easier. We plan to stain 9 crates altogether, so sanding by hand would be a pretty hefty task.

Most of the crates we were staining were what I would consider to be the average size. They're relatively cheap, too! Find them here. We also were staining a medium sized crate and 2 smaller crates that were going to be used for gifts - stay tuned for another post on those :).

I really got the hang of the orbital sander. Wear safety glasses while using an orbital sander - no, seriously, trust me. 

We stained the crates using a foam brush, which turned out to be not the greatest idea. If i had to do this again I would use a rag or a regular paint brush. We ended up using way too much stain. 

We really had our hands full with this many crates. We ended up doing 4 of them within a few hours.

You can tell that the stain was put on too thick. If this happens, the stain not only ends up extremely dark, but it's also sticky even when it's dry! To fix this, I just sanded the area that was splotchy/sticky. 

What a difference! 

Overall I would say this was a very positive experience! By over staining the wooden crates, I ended up having to sand them down after the stain was put on. When you do this, it gives the crate a more rustic and nonuniform look which is what I was going for to begin with! This is such an easy project to have such a cool piece in your home. I guarantee you will get compliments on these crates.

Happy Staining!