Living 5 miles from IKEA is dangerous for me in so many ways. At least once a week I call one my friends and look for any excuse to go. “Oh hey, it’s raining outside? Let’s go to IKEA!” The kids have a great time watching Frozen in our ‘I wish this was mine’ IKEA living room, or playing with the egg chair, and we get to shop…It’s a win win for everyone.

On one of my many visits to the store, I saw these Knagglig wooden crates and was hit with this DIY idea of turning these crates into a coffee table. So, I bought a couple crates, then picked up some Minwax wood stain, a couple sponge sbrushes, some screws and bolts, and four rolling wheels, took my pirate booty home and got to work.

Since it was raining outside (and me being the impatient person that I am), I decided to do the staining in the basement. I do not recommend this. Definitely use this wood stain outside or in an open, WELL ventilated area because the fumes can be a bit over-powering in an enclosed space.

After I finished staining the wood and let them dry overnight, I made good use of the cordless electric drill my in-laws gave my husband last year for Christmas. I built the crates IKEA style, then attached them bottom to bottom with four 3 inch screws and bolts. Then I attached the wheels, and voila! A coffee table!

I thought about using four crates to make it bigger, but this size is perfect with kids because they can easily move it out of the way whenever they want to use the living room floor as their tumble mat (which happens quite a lot). It also provides extra storage since it’s open on both sides.

Another use I found for the crate was a shoes storage solution by the door. This way the shoes are kept up off the floor and it provides a great place to drop things like keys and sunglasses when you come inside.