If you ever find yourself in our house during the month of December, you’ll quickly realize that I love vintage Christmas decorations. From Shiny Brite ornaments, to Putz houses, to old sleigh bells on cracked leather straps- I love it all. And making a project to display some of my vintage ornaments (an ornament stand, if you will) from a wooden bottle crate has been on my to-do list for a while.
For a few years now, I’ve been passively looking for the perfect vintage soda crate. But I kept coming up short-handed.
Finally, after much searching, I found a bottle crate that was ideal to work with. Now, it’s not as old as some of the crates I’ve admired (there’s a “77” stamped inside, which makes it just two years younger than me!).
BUT, it’s designed for 1-liter bottles. So the openings are larger which is ideal for “plumper” Christmas ornaments!
Plus it’s red…AND the RC could stand for either Royal Crown or Retro Christmas. SOLD!
Now I could finally upcycle a bottle crate into an ornament stand for some of my Shiny Brite Ornaments!
We all know I have plenty of those!
The best part is that I wouldn’t have to do much at all to the wooden bottle crate! In fact, my plan was pretty much a more rustic version of this boho Christmas tree.
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Upcycling a Wooden Bottle Crate for Christmas Decor
Transforming my wooden crate into an ornament stand was going to be SUPER easy. First, I purchased some small brass cup hooks– other than the shiny gold color, they were perfect.
Why? I needed the screw end to be short, as to not poke through the narrow dividers of the bottle crate.
Personally, I didn’t want the cup hooks to be overly visible inside the bottle crate. But that brassy gold color was going to stick out like a sore thumb.
So, I did a quick-and-dirty spray paint job to tone down the brassiness using an antique bronze paint.
Not only did that make them look more vintage-y, but they were darker and would blend into the background better.
And then I just set to work- screwing in a tiny cup hook in each opening of the bottle crate.
Now, I could have spent time measuring and marking, ensuring each hook was in the very center. But I was way too excited and guesstimated the center in each of the 12 openings.
I used a small craft hammer and small pliers to get the hooks inside each opening.
When all 12 hooks were attached, I grabbed some of my vintage ornaments to hang in each cubby hole. Don’t they look delightful in there?
Wooden Bottle Crate as a Wooden Ornament Stand
Over the years, I’ve played around with this. Sometimes hanging ornaments in a color theme, sometimes certain shapes. But at the end of the day, a mixture is my favorite look.
I love having an alternative way to display the Shiny Brite ornaments. I love them in bowls and hanging on a tree, but this is a fun new way to display them.
Plus, this ornament stand in a bottle crate is such a safe way to display your Shiny Brite ornaments. Place this on a bookcase or table top – away from the tree and curious paws (or small hands).
Heck, you could even store your Shiny Brite ornaments in the bottle crate for the other 11 months of the year. Just wrap them in soft paper or cloth and tuck away in a safe place!
Because let’s face it – we ALL need good Christmas storage, am I right?
And if you enjoyed this display for vintage Christmas ornaments, then you’ll also love this idea for your tiniest Shiny Brite ornaments. These Christmas tree baskets are perfect for displaying them!
Craft on!
S
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Sarah Ramberg is the owner of Sadie Seasongoods, a website that celebrates all things secondhand. From upcycling ideas and thrifted decor to vintage-centric travel itineraries, Sadie Seasongoods is a one-stop shop for anyone who loves thrifting and approachable repurposing ideas. Sarah is also the author of “Crafting with Flannel” and has been featured in numerous media outlets and magazines.
I love this! My mom has handed me down a lot of her ornaments. They would great in a display like this. I’m on the lookout for a crate now.
Make sure you look for a crate with big enough cubby-holes…that’s the trick! (Unless your heirloom ornaments are little…then it’s not as big a deal) 🙂
Now I just hav to find a cute crate. Awesome idea!
Thanks, Kat!
I would love to find a crate like that. The cool thing is you can change out what’s in it throughout the year.
Perfect!
Thanks for sharing!
This is so cute!!!
Thanks, Linda!! it’s a nice change of pace for ornament display.
Sadie, what you made is adorable! TFS 🙂
Thank you so much!
Definitely cuteness!
Thanks so much for sharing on Show-Licious!
~ Ashley
That is what I call organised Christmas! 😉
Love that you used the old crate!
Thanks for linking up with Big Christmas Link Party:)
xx
Mila
milaslittlethings.com
[email protected]
Thanks so much!
Thank you for joining my party !
Your post has been featured 🙂
Have a happy New Year!
Mila
[email protected]
milaslittlethings.com
So,so cute! What a great idea! I would love if you would share this at my blog party, Celebrate It! It is all about celebrating our wonderful, everyday lives!
http://thefreshmancook.blogspot.com/2014/11/celebrate-it-blog-party-19.html
so love this
Thank you so very much, Bernice!
I am in love with this idea and have two soda crates. One big problem, my openings are much smaller and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get the hooks fastened! Anyone have any ideas? I can barely get into the opening and I really want this to work 😥 help!
Patti, if I were you and knew that my ornaments fit, I would buy the smallest hooks I could find- maybe even looking online if the ones at hardware stores were still too large. Then, I’d use wire cutters or a Dremel tool to snip off the screw part so that the hooks could be glued on. It’s not an ideal fix, but that would be what I would try.