While we had the barn wood out for the Barn Wood Tree and Barn Wood Table Top, Melissa had the idea to replace my makeshift end table.

It wasn’t really an end table, actually. We had been using an ottoman base from a garage sale with a 12″ square tile that we saved from the neighbor’s dumpster.

And it was driving Melissa crazy. She really hated it. I never thought it was that bad…and it was better than nothing for me to sit my drink on at night.

In the meantime, she had found an antique crate at another yard sale.

It had been sitting under the end table (also from a garage sale) on her side of the loveseat, unused. (Since that wasn’t a permanent location for the crate, we didn’t snap any pics, but you can imagine it below the green end table below, right?)

When we moved the spool inside as an end table on her side, we tried just moving the end table over by the window, but it felt cramped so we tried the crate over there on a whim. Turns out, we liked it. It was lower to the ground so it didn’t seem as cramped. And it didn’t compete with the nontraditional spool table on the other side.

The only problem is that there was no lid, so while it could be used to hide my stuff inside it, I couldn’t use it to hold a drink or a snack. Or the remote.

We talked about several options of adding a top or just stacking up books or magazines inside the crate to make a makeshift surface, but in the end, we decided a removable “lid” would be best. We decided to use the barn wood because it was already weathered to sort of match the antique crate. They’re both even a little dirty (is that antique bird poop???).

So I used the same method to make this lid as I did the table top. I needed a finished size of 14″ x 24″, so the 12″ wide board worked perfectly. I cut 2 pieces that were 14″ and screwed them together with a couple extra 5 gallon paint stir sticks from Home Depot.

I positioned the stir sticks to fit on the inside of the box. This will help keep the lid in the right spot. Since the barn wood has a little warp to it, I used some felt padding on one of the corners to get rid of any wobble.

And here is the finished product!

Melissa’s happy, so I’m happy. And I admit this is better than the pieces we had been using. Especially since we now have that little ottoman out as an extra seat in the living room (which we used for our Christmas party with friends!)

And the crate provides some privacy for stashing my stuff so Melissa doesn’t pick it up/throw it away/move it so I don’t know where it is.

All in all, a really easy, quick, nearly free project. (It was nice to have a few easy projects, after the headache of building the table–which should be up on the blog tomorrow!)

So, what unusual items do you use for furniture in your house? We currently have a spool, a plant stand, stacks of books, and a crate all being used as tables. We’d love to hear your creative ideas, too!