DIY Cushion Lid Soda Crate Magazine Holder

For Christmas this last year my mom gave me my gifts in this really rad old 7up soda crate

I knew with that much character I couldn't just let it go to waste holding some junk in the shed

So, after much Googling, Pinteresting and deliberation I decided on an awesome use for it!

We have had this hideously ugly magazine holder in our bathroom for years

I got it for free like so many other things we have in our house that I absolutely hate now.

And I have been in super purging mode lately.

So I needed a replacement before I could ditch it.

So I thought I would enlist my super awesome Daddy-O's help to make my vision come to fruition

he was all too eager to help me since we haven't seen each other in more than 2 weeks!  

I was going to turn my crate into a magazine holder with a cool cushioned hinged top.

I just got some new rugs and towels for our bathroom in my favorite colors.  

Oceanic ones!

(really pretty greens and blues, I tried to find pics from the Target website, but couldn't, ugh

As much as I love Target, I HATE their website!!)

So I wanted the crate to match the new theme

My dad's super awesome and very old saw that he got from his father-in-law

Making his measurements

There was a missing plank across the bottom of the crate 

so we cut this piece to size to fit inside the bottom

marking our cuts on the plywood for the lid

Sanding

Perfect fit!  (of course!)

my dad is a perfectionist when it comes to this type of  project so here he is erasing the marks from inside the box

we added a strip of plywood to the upper back side of the crate to reinforce where the screws  would attach for the hinges

We tried to use the hinges this way, but after testing them, we found that it wouldn't work and had to attach them to the back of the crate.

So I got a foam chair pad from JoAnn's and cut it down to size.

Then I went out to my craft stockpile in the shed and got some polyester 1/4" batting and double layered it.

I got some really beautiful and great quality fabric that matched my bathroom colors perfectly @ JoAnn's too.

I layered the right side down fabric

the 2 layers of batting

The chair foam

and the plywood

I then stretched the bejeebers out of the batting and fabric over the back and stapled it a million times all the way around 

(Of course I have no photos of this step because like a doofus I allowed all my batteries to die, camera AND phone, ugh!) 

 I wanted to be sure that the magazines wouldn't just end up in a messy pile inside the crate so I asked my dad to add the dowels for me, 

what's cool too is that we can mark our places in our magazines as you can see 

we drilled holes through the side of the crate and put 1/4' wooden dowels all the way through

 So here's the finished product! 

I'm so in love with this project

we added bumpers to the bottom so it couldn't scuff up the floor and also so it would stay put.

how cool is this?!

 I thought about finding a way to make the underside of the lid look more "finished" but I decided it really didn't matter that much and just left it

I may change my mind later, but for now it works for me.

silly view through the handle hole

So that's what I did yesterday.

It was so fun to hang out with my dad for the first time in a good while, he is so much fun!

( And really crafty)

Plus it was super refreshing to have a project to work on, it's been a while

and we are already planning to find something else to make together.

Yesterday was a good day.