Aged Crates

I got this idea from pinterest and decided to use it for our new living room.

 Via

Via

Here is what the crate looked like when I first bought them from Joanns.  I think that they were $12 each but I used a 50% off coupon for all of them, so it cost $26 for the whole project including the steel wool.  (Just a side note: Joann's excepts Michaels coupon, so as long as you have one coupon per crate you can get the same discount.)

I watched a video on You tube to see what to do.  I was a little confused by that video and did not end up doing the way that the video did it.

You need to let the steel wool sit in the vinegar for at least two hours.  The longer the better. I should of at one point mixed the tea and vinegar but did not.  I tried using a paint brush with the tea but it was not doing anything.  The reaction takes place when actually rubbing the wool soaked with vinegar on to the wood.  As you rub the wood it will start to get hot.  I wore rubber gloves while doing this.  It can be messy, so make sure you do this in a place that you don't mind getting dirty.

I started to get lines in it from drips, but kind of liked the way that it looked because it make it look older and used.

I loved the way that it turned out.

Here again is the picture of them on my wall!

The most tedious part was screwing them to the wall.  I used a screw molly bolt and then drilled a hole through the crate and then into the wall.  I arranged them on the floor to see what pattern that I liked and the just began screwing one at a time into the wall.  I made a mistake with the first one and ended up with a hole in the wall from the molly bolt.  I would say drill your hole into the crate first and at least start to screw both in and then use that at to mark the wall and then add the molly bolt at that time.