Supplies:
Milk or similar crate
Plywood square
Fabric square
Foam square
Staples
A milk crate has many purposes. It can be a toy box, a holder of mismatched socks, a craft supply box, or a bulky but useful shelf. You can even arrange milk crates in a rectangular shape, lay a box spring and mattress on them, and create a lot of storage space under the bed. But a single crate can also be many things, all at once. When you do a quick and simple project with a milk crate, you can turn it into an all-in-one, footstool, child’s chair, and storage bin.
The perfect crate for making the seat/stool/storage is a plastic one, used often for packing milk, which will be taken to stores. The plastic crate is great because it’s not heavy but, if you don’t have one, you can always use a wooden crate. Felt can be attached to the bottom of a wooden crate, to protect the floor, but it won’t move well on carpet.
It’s up to you if you want to put wheels on the bottom of the milk crate. It’s not so hard to drill four holes in the four corners of the crate bottom. The wheel sets can be found at a home improvement store and they come with easy instructions to install them.
You’re going to need a piece of cut wood and, for many crafting people, the thought of having to operate an electric saw eliminates this project from consideration. However, if you purchase the wood at a large home improvement store, they’ll cut it for you without charge. That means you won’t have to break out any power tools. Measure the top of the create and have a piece of wood cut to be that size.
A thick piece of foam makes a comfy seat on the wooden square. A great source of foam is a mattress pad, found at a dollar-theme store (the kind where everything is not a buck). Another source is a lounge or similar cushion. Cut the foam to be the size of the board.
Lay the board on a chosen piece of fabric or vinyl. Draw around the board – on the backside of the cloth – staying a couple of inches away from the board as you draw. Cut out the fabric, which is slightly larger than the board.
Put the foam on the board, and cover it all with the cloth. The right side of the fabric, of course, should be facing up. Bring the edges of the fabric to the back of the board and staple them in place. Set the seat on the crate and your all-in-one footstool, child’s seat, and storage bin, is ready for use.
