Hej again! Quick bit of inspiration today with another really simple bit of DIY interior design, Swedish style. I say “Swedish style” purely as I’ve seen this in a few peoples homes in one form or another, so I’d say it’s quite a common thing to do out here.

As you may have read in my previous posts, Maddie and I really like to bring life to old and forgotten objects. Whether that be some old unused glass jars, wine bottles or an old unwanted table. And today is another one of those days. This time we’re giving a wooden storage crate some new life and a new purpose.

We picked this one up from the apple farm ‘Kullabygdens Musteri’, which I wrote about previously. There’s a huge array of things that you can do with these crates, some are spectacular. I’ll include a few images at the end of this post to give some examples.

For mine, I’m playing it simple. We’ve been in desperate need of another bed side table since we’ve moved in and this does the job perfectly. The crate itself was in a really good condition already, so wouldn’t need much work. It also had the “Musteri” logo stamped onto the top which we really wanted to keep. As such, a simple bit of sanding to remove any imperfections and rough edges and it’s already good to go.

Now this is where you can really get creative. You can fill in gaps in the top with additional pieces of wood to make a flat surface. You can create drawers and shelves within the crate. You could age the wood to make it fit with more traditional pieces of furniture. The choice is yours to customise this piece.

Or you can opt for what we’ve done and keep it simple. For the time being I’ve used the bottom shelf to store some of our books, whilst also creating a weight for some additional stability. However, I am tempted to do some more to it, especially with the top level. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, let me know in the comments box below. And here’s some amazing designs from other people that I’ve come across.

My simple beside table design. A brilliant coffee table made from multiple crates A side table on wheels for the living room A collection of crates to make a desk Another bed side table design