DIY Lid for a Wood Crate

Before

After

Watch the video to see how to made lids for ready made wood crates.

We are using furring strips. They are very inexpensive. We started by sanding them as they are fairly rough.

Six slats are needed for each lid. Each slat measures 18" long. We are using a miter saw, but these can be cut with a miter box and hand saw.

We also cut two cross bars for each lid. These are from the same furring strips, but are cut to 11 3/4" long.

All the cut pieces are now ready for assembly.

Using some kind of finish on the slats is optional. We chose to finish with a bit of Danish oil to better match the existing color of the crates.

To assemble, we laid the slats upside down on the top of the crate. We just eyeballed the spacing, but you could measure the spacing if you wanted. We put the cross bars in place and then marked around them.

We are using a Surebonder hot glue gun with their wood glue. Work with a buddy as the glue cools quickly. We traced the outline so that we could quickly line up where the cross bar needed to be placed once the hot glue was put on. Weigh down the cross bar once glued until the glue dries. We are using our vintage irons for this.

We finished with a coupe of brad nails or you could use screws or nails.

Here they are all covered and in place. A bonus to having lids is we can now store additional items on top of the crates.