Pyramid Crate Organizer

Stacy Davis
by Stacy Davis
10 Materials
$100
4 Hours
Medium

This project is one in a long line of projects to organize my daughter's room. I started to go back and count how many times I have built a project to do this and then she never used it and decided, "Nope, don't look back!" So, I began again with two of my favorite materials. Crates and stair treads. I had a rough beta of my idea put together in no time. If you are looking for a good song to listen to while you do your project, I had Panic! at the disco's High Hopes on repeat while I assembled this project. I danced around the room singing, "Mama said don't give up, it's a little complicated..." I had the project started in my daughter’s room and then got sidetracked. She came to me and asked me how was the pyramid shelf supposed to work. I said, "I was thinking of organizing it kind of like how you wear outfits. Shoes on the bottom below the stair tread, pants and shorts on the lowest level, shirts on the next and small items on the top with accessories on the top and sides." Y'all! She went up and started using it that day, in the way that I described! When I was ready to finish the project by adding shelves and cork board and wallpaper, it was full of clothes and jewelry and in use. This project might just work. As I was building this, my 25 yr old son asked me what project I was working on for his sister. After I explained it was a pyramid organizer, shoes go under the shelf and so on, he said, "I want one, too!"

Colored Crates-Top Home Depot Bottom Michaels

I felt such a feeling of joy when I walked into Home Depot and Michaels and found out that my beloved crates now have colored options! I bought the gray stain at Home Depot.

I am starting with a stair tread as the base of my unit. You can find the post where I created this piece at Hometalk here http://www.hometalk.com/diy/living-room/furni..., I placed three crates upright on top.

And the final three on top, like so... see, a pyramid shelf. The peel and stick wall paper is from Target. My daughter picked it out. It is dark blue with gold paint splotches and reminded her of a night sky and the constellations. I am putting it on the back of the crates to make them look less "crateish"

I went back and forth on which direction that I wanted the top crate to go. Upright and I could have the outer sides be organizers for her but horizontally gave more surface area. I ended up going with the upright direction, but you do you!

My shelf supports were just some scraps of wood that I had laying around. I think they were roughly 1 by 1 inch. You just need something with a bit of an edge for the shelf to sit on.

Here are my shelf supports after I spray painted them and my chicken supervisor inspecting my work as usual. I wanted to add a shelf to each crate to double the storage.

This is the wallpaper from Target. On one piece, I removed the backing but it didn't stick probably because the crates are stained. On the rest, I left the backing on and used a staple gun to hold all of them in place.

For the shelf supports that went into slats, I used my staple gun. This one came with lots of options for lengths of staples. You can get this staple gun on amazon... it is the bomb! Get the staple selection pack too... because sometimes you want little staples and sometimes you want LONG ones and this pack has everything in between too.

I selected a staple that would go through the slat and grab the shelf support. I also used glue.

The two middle crates had shelf supports that went into thick wood and not slats. For these two crates, I used nails and glue to attach the shelf supports.

Since my shelves are just holding light items, I am using plank paneling. It is lightweight, easy to cut and fairly inexpensive. You can find a picture of the plank paneling that I use here... http://www.hometalk.com/diy/living-room/furni...

For each shelf, I used two pieces of paneling and a piece of lattice. The paneling left just a small amount of space and the lattice filled the space perfectly. I spray painted all the these pieces gray.

I added peel and stick cork board to each side of the top crate. I am going to find some cute push pins and she can keep mementos and pictures here.

All done! I think it should work well in either of their rooms. I think with doubling the shelving, it is more efficient. I plan on using flat brackets to attach everything on the back side. That way if I move, I can unscrew all the components.

You can even customize the cork on the sides. My daughter loves the show Friends and I saw a similar idea on Pinterest for hanging photos. The D smeared a bit but I still love it. If it bothers her, I will try to find some paint to match the cork but for now, I’m calling this project done! icon

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