Soda crates for sale by Etsy seller Ingenuityondisplay

What could we do to cover up the pegboard that would contain our spices and ceramic cup collection that wouldn't look out of place with the new stove? We hit upon the idea of using vintage soda crates. Soda crates are modular, funky and fortunately for us, abundant. We kept our eyes peeled at flea markets and antique stores, and scored a few great ones. One of our local antique dealers that is loathe to sell anything in his store still refuses to let go of any of the Coca-Cola crates that he's been hoarding over the years. Maybe he has the same plan. We augmented our crate purchases with a few spectacular ones that we found on eBay.

Even though soda crates are relatively inexpensive, they add up fast. We'd been looking for about a month and didn't have anywhere near the amount we needed. We had all of our friends looking for crates for us. A hot tip came in that one of our local salvage lumberyards had a big pile of old crates for sale, and sure enough, they did. The crates at the lumberyard were in pretty sad shape, but we managed to find a number of them that would fit in nicely with our existing collection. At $5 apiece, the price was right.

A friend warned us that old soda crates tend to harbor all sorts of creepy-crawlies like termites and tiny wood-eating beetles. A good way to kill off any unwanted guests is to put the crates into your freezer overnight. I'd like to say that we were scientific about putting the crates up on the wall, but that wouldn't be accurate. We did some measuring and tetrising of the boxes on our kitchen floor, but eventually, we just drilled holes into the boxes, then screwed them up one by one using long drywall screws. We were drilling directly into a sheet of plywood that was already on the wall, but if you are dealing with drywall, you'll probably want to put up a piece of plywood using drywall anchors.

We had some awesome crates left over, so we took them apart and used the salvage wood for shelves. My favorite touch was using a printed board from an old Grape Nehi crate to secure our oil and vinegar. Most of the crates came with their own dividers that wound up being perfect for what we were putting in them. We used more of our salvage wood to create additional dividers in crates that didn't have them already. Wherever possible, we tried to use printed boards and the charming, natural features of the crates.

We finished the stove area by hiring a talented local cabinet maker to construct a new cabinet to match our stove (more on that later). The final touch for the stove was a pot rack that we scored at a garage sale. For the first time in either of our lives, we have a functional kitchen where everything we need is at hand. Now, it's a pleasure for us to hang out in our kitchen. The soda crates went a long way toward personalizing the space -- and there's even room for Ras al Hanout, Garam Masala and English Prime Rib Rub. Spicy.

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