Yay! Wine Crates!

Ok, it was typical Hilary hyperbole when I said I started this project a year ago. I checked the archives here at All the Cool Kids Love to Craft to find out that I started this project in April 2008. However, my inspiration from the DIY blog of Design*Sponge was posted in October 2007. And thus, my enthusiasm that this project has finally been completed isn't ridiculous. Fifteen months of living in an apartment with wine crates lurking in empty corners is a long time. A couple of weeks in one of my crazed all night crafting sprees, I finished wall papering the crates and reassembled them. (The original Design*Sponge post doesn't advocate taking the crate apart to paper it, but that's what I'd advise doing so that there aren't rough spots at the corners. The paper is of a thickness, perhaps unlike cheaper wrapping paper, that is lumpy when folded over. I took each crate apart into three portions, the lid, the four sides and the bottom. I gave the bottom piece to my dad for use in the chiminea pot in my parent's backyard , papered the remaining two portions and reassembled them to create the finished product.) I nailed a pair of picture hangers to the back of each crate. And despite my protests last week about using math to hang things in an orderly fashion, I had to use the old measuring tape, calculator and level to get these crates to line up and fit in a pretty small space. It turns out for these to fit without the bottom one being awkwardly crammed into the TV, I had to hang the top one 3" from the ceiling and 4" from the corner. Wow. That hanging experience was pretty painful. And required more than one try. Whoops. Fitting a power drill that close to the juncture of three walls and that high off the ground forced me to stand one leg on the top rung of the ladder, one leg on the top sill of a window -- safety clearly was abandoned at the wayside for this installation. But after hanging that top one, the rest was smooth sailing. And I think it is mathematically correct. Yay!

I realize that I didn't bother to load up the crates in an artful way before snapping this picture. Honestly, I just wanted the satisfaction (15 months after the dream of this project began) of saying... I'm done. Plus now that these are there, I really don't know what I'm going to do to stock these crates. My mom stopped by to drop off an umbrella (best drop by reason ever) while I was lamenting the emptiness of the crates and she uttered a great Martha pun, "You should just be crateful that you finished them."

And folks, on that note, I'm outta here. Don't forget to vote at the bottom of the page. I'll catch you next time I'm feeling crafty!