Milk Box Upcycled For Pillow Storage

Hello friends, sorry for missing you guys last week! As you may recall I mentioned that we were taking a road trip out to Vegas and I’m not kidding when I say I spent allllll of last week struggling to catch up with life! I was also busy preparing for Tristan’s birthday party which was this past weekend. So needless to say, I’ve been just a tad bit overwhelmed!

I honestly didn’t even think that I was going to have time to finish a thrift store project to share this week! But a challenge is a challenge and I was determined to see what could come up with on short notice. So I went out to the garage where I stash all of my thrift store finds and I ended up stumbling upon the old milk box that I used to keep under our kitchen island.

So a little back story on this guy. A few years ago the hubby found this old milk box sitting by a trash can at the gas station. Super random, right?

Because he knows his crazy thrifting wife sooooo well, he knew that I would love it so he brought it home.

I ended up turning it in to a storage box that was perfect for holding mixing bowls under the kitchen island at our old house and shared a tutorial for it way back in 2016. However since we moved to the new house it’s just been sitting in the garage collecting dust since I didn’t know where to put it.

When I found it I was sad to see that the lid was actually starting to fall apart. But then suddenly I had a grand idea of how I could use it without the lid so I decided to tackle it for this month’s challenge.

The Rules:

• Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
• There’s no monthly theme.
• There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Angela | Simply Beautiful By Angela – Gail | Purple Hues and Me – Jenny | Cookies Coffee and Crafts – Pili | My Sweet Things – Meredith | Southbound Blog – Chas | Chas’ Crazy Creations – Angie | Grandma Creates – Molly | Just a Little Creativity – Beverly | Across the Blvd

Supplies Used:(Affiliate links may be provided for convenience.  For more info, see my full disclosure here.) 

• 1x4s
• Wood Glue
• Nails
• DIY Chalk Paint (1 cup latex paint + 1 teaspoon Plaster of Paris)
• Valspar Dark Sealing Wax
• Microfiber Cloths
• Sharpie

Ok, let’s go back to the beginning of what I did with this box originally.  

Using wood glue and nails I took some scrap 1×4 furring strips that I had laying around to trim out all 4 sides.

Since the trim extended past the original lid, I glued on some thin plywood to build it out to be flush with the new trim and then painted the entire thing.

When I took some sandpaper to distress it I realized that there was gray paint left over from another project on it and it ended up transferring over for really cool aged wood effect!

And finally, I decided to add numbers with gray paint to each side for some fun character. This is how it turned out!

And now for its second makeover that I did this past weekend. After I removed the lid I traced over the numbers with black Sharpie since I wanted them to pop a little more than the gray did. I also distressed them for a vintage look.

To make it even more vintage I decided to blend a small amount of Valspar Dark Sealing Wax over the entire piece.

Then I popped a couple of my favorite pillows inside!

Cutest pillow storage ever! I have a slight obsession with throw pillows, so it makes me super happy that I have a new place to stash them.

It reminds me of those cool old crates that I’ve seen at antique stores.

And it’s the perfect addition for our living room!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

Linking up to these awesome parties!