Vintage Soda Crate Repurpose

I love old wooden soda boxes. We have collected quite a few over the years. I have visions of using them in the kitchen for spices or in a kids room to organize toys… the possibilities are infinite. This little repurpose project created a more attractive pet food display for our lab Chief, who in his short year and a half with us has inspired other DIY craft projects like this and this.

I have been nagging asking my husband to make me something better for our pet food and water dishes. I never really liked them just sitting on the kitchen floor. They often get kicked and moved around a lot. And, of course there’s usually tiny puddles of water from our little slurper. I had measured our pet food dishes and found that both of them fit perfectly inside one of our soda crates. I described it to my husband, making it sound super simple and speedy… because that helps (I think).

He totally rocked this DIY repurpose project beyond what I imagined. I stepped into the workshop after hearing a few things being slammed around – thinking the project might not be as easy as I made it sound. He was cursing the bead board that he pieced together for the top. LOVE it that he decided to use bead board!! I had only said “just add something on the top to hold the bowls and I’ll paint it or something”… but this was so much better. Yep, this guy knows what he’s doing.

I love everything about this little soda crate repurpose… it transforms our pet food and water bowls while adding a little (more) vintage color to our kitchen. We chose this particular crate because the yellow and red paint was still so vibrant. Most of our kitchen walls are covered in bead board so it ties nicely with the top of the crate.

We decided not to paint the top. Seeing it finished, I worried it would take away from the vintage yellow and red paint on the sides. Instead we coated all of it in a little clear satin polyurethane to protect it from future water and food spills.

We’ve been doing lots in our kitchen lately. It’s a DIY remodel one small space at a time. Inspired by vintage, we have created little vignettes wherever we can. I simple added some magnets to the back of these old spice containers for a little fridge organization. We are always looking for a pen in this house…