So I decided it was time to find something that was more "me" and scaled to my space.

I was on the hunt, high and low, for a steamer trunk or even an old, wooden chest to use. Everything I found that may work was out of my price range or had a curved top. {Curved top trunks can never, as pretty as they may be, find a new use as a coffee table if I can't place a coffee cup on it.}

Well, the other day I was talking about this with my parents and my mom said, "You wouldn't be interested in the crate box in the front room, would you?". This was something my dad found on the curb and was tucked against the wall, holding random things that didn't yet have a home.  I thought it would be too small but I thought I would give it a try. If it didn't work out, I could always give it back.

This crate had large patches of old wallpaper on it. After getting it home, my first order of business was to remove that old paper. Underneath, I found the crate was stamped! {I just love finding history like that}.

Long story short, I removed the paper by scraping it off, vacuumed out the inside to make it nice and clean, and used a wood cleaner to cut down on the build up on the crate's top. Inside, I threw in some cozy blankets, a few puzzles, my son's LeapFrog Tag reader, books, and map, a few of my own books, and a little basket for remotes and called it "done".

This, my friends, is my new coffee table on its original casters and I love it.


It's much better than the $20 table from that "big box" furniture store. *nods head*