Wine Crate Dog Toy Box or Dog Bed

Blitzkrieg didn’t know what toys were when he first came to live with us. When he stress chewed his fur, I gave him a toy as a positive distraction. Blitzkrieg would look at me as if to say,” I know this is mine because you gave it to me but what do I do with it?” (It still hurts to type this.)

At the time, I whipped up a quickie toy box from a cardboard box. I took the opportunity to try covering the box with wrinkled brown paper bags.

Eh, not much to look at but it works for now I thought. I fully expected Blitzkrieg to stress chew the box. Then I would  take the opportunity to replace it  with a proper toy box later.

Save this recycled wine crate project to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

                                 Don't tell Lisa, I have toys hidden all over the house - hee!

Blitzkrieg didn’t chew his toy box to bits. Although he now knows toys are for playing with and chompin’!

It is about time I upgrade Blitzkrieg’s toy box in the living room. I got a wood wine crate free for the asking from our favorite wine shop to make the toy box as a Christmas gift. I did not have time to do the project in time for Christmas.

Wine Crate Toy Box Before

If there is one thing about canine cancer, it reinforces the Do It Now principle.

My boy is getting a proper toy box.

How to Make a Toy Box or Dog Bed From a Wood Wine Crate

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                                                            Wine Crate Toy Box After

You will need:

Wood wine crate - if you don't have a friend who owns a wine shop you can buy recycled wood wine crates here!

Pencil

Template (optional)

Jigsaw - I have this exact jigsaw and love it!

Sandpaper

Wood rounds - you can buy unfinished wood rounds here 

Wood glue 

4 wood screws

Screwdriver

Paint brush

Tea wood stain (or you can buy non toxic pet safe wood stain here)

Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience

Make it:

1. I want an opening in the front of Blitzkrieg’s toy box so he can easily access his toys when the mood strikes. I stink at freehand drawing. I cut the front off Blitzkrieg’s old toy box and used it as a template to draw the toy box opening on the front of the crate with a pencil.

2. I cut along the pencil line with a jigsaw.

Vrooooooooooooom!

3.  I sanded the opening scoop smooth with a sanding tip using my Dremel. It’s a wavy sanding job and one I’m not quite happy with because I didn’t use the right tool for the job. It would have been best to hand sand it. I used the Dremel because I am out of regular sandpaper and tried to cut a financial corner.  I might have made up for it if I used a router but we were having a not so great dog health day the day I did this project. I needed this project as distraction and thought it best to limit my use of power tools that day.

Let's pretend I added a little character to the project instead of bad technique, K?

4. I knocked back the roughness of the outside and inside of the wood crate by sanding it with 80 grit sandpaper followed by 120 grit sandpaper with my belt sander.

Our new neighbor wandered over expecting some Guy Time with Husband because he heard tool sounds coming from the garage. He did a double take when he saw me covered head to toe in sawdust and sanding away with the belt sander. True story.

5. To bump the new toy box up a bit from the old model, I added round wood feet to the bottom of the toy box. I sanded four decent looking rounds I had  from cutting holes in plywood with a hole saw for a past project. I attached the feet to the each corner of the toy box using wood glue and wood screws I also had
on hand.

 

I could have cut square and mitered feet from scrap plywood with my compound miter saw or purchased something similar at a craft or home improvement store. 

Using a hole saw isn’t the recommended method for cutting a pretty solid round object (as opposed to cutting a round hole in wood.) Hole saws are designed to cut a nice looking and round hole in a piece of wood and not the wood round as you can see from my photos. I went with this method because it was free from my scrap pile.

6. I waited for the wood glue to dry before I tea stained the toy box. I chose tea because I wanted a dog safe wood stain. I used four coats of tea wood stain. I like how the tea wood stain tweaked the wine crate to a nice honey color. The color will naturally deepen over time. 

 Come back to Condo Blues for a full wood tea staining tutorial!

Looks like Blitzkrieg is a chip off the DIY Woods tree. I let him check out his new wine crate toy box. Blitzkrieg promptly turned it into a wood wine crate dog bed.

If you put a pillow in here, it would make a sweet dog bed!

I put his toys in the new toy box. What would Blitzkrieg do?

Let's see. Stylish, easy access to my toys....

Looks good sitting next to me...

Comfy too. I like it. Thank you Lisa!

You are welcome Blitzkrieg. I hope you enjoy your new toy box. 

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