If you are like me, you are always looking for new ways to organize and store all of your craft room goodies. It came to me one day while looking at a friends, now unwanted baby crib.

The pieces of the crib could make great storage for some of your smaller items, perfect to mount on a wall near your workspace.

So my adventure began. I took that unwanted crib and used some of the pieces to make my creation.

I started by preparing the used crib. I cleaned it thoroughly and then sanded all of the surfaces that I had planned on painting. A light sanding will help the paint adhere to the surface. A quick wipe with a damp cloth afterwards will get rid of any dust left behind from sanding.

I also had to cut the crib pieces so that when put together, all pieces would be the same length. But that would all depend on your crib. You want to make sure that the rungs of the crib will line up like shelves.

I then mixed my DecoArts Patio paints to get the desired shade of green.

Overall, covering the crib took and average of 3 coats of paint. I didn’t want any wood grain showing through.

Once your pieces are painted and dried, you can start to think about assembling. I used the 2 sides of the crib, and I also used 2 pieces of wood that were on the bottom section of the crib that I had . This gave a little separation to my crib sides, making the shelves a little wider.

I simply used a hammer and nails to put mine together. I made sure that anywhere I had nails would be covered by my ribbon later.

I then added my Natural Burlap/Cotton Ribbon around every other section. I used a hot glue gun to attach each piece in the back.

Depending on your crib, you may have little spaces that could be hard to get to with paint. I decided early on that I would be covering these spaces with patterned paper. So I added narrow strips of patterned paper in the section that did not have the Burlap/Cotton ribbon.

I then added the Parrot Green Burlap Twine to each of the ribbon sections. I wrapped very long lengths of the the twine around and around, and tied a knot in the front of each section. I wanted to add texture and even a bit of a nautical look to my storage.

I wanted to add something to the top of my storage, as after trimming it to the length that I needed, it left the pieces a little rough looking. So I added some ruffled fabric and ruffled fabric flowers to cover all that needed to be covered.

From there, your upcycled crib is ready to store all of your precious craft room goodies!

By Tracy McLennon

Other Supplies Used:

• Authentique Patterned Paper
• Baby Crib
• DecoArt Patio Paint and Foam Brushes
• Hot Glue Gun
• Hammer, Nails, Sand Paper, Saw
• Large Flowers and Buttons