Here is a peek into one corner of my chaos. It is the corner of my chaos that inspired a DIY Wall Media Cabinet from a couple crates I already had on hand.
I love my old trunks but we needed a spot for the Nugget to live…. because kids. When the trunks were relocated we encountered a problem as the absense of the trunks left all the electrical wires where our toddler could play freely with them. This was one problem we had to address right away. I will share our solution at the end of the tutorial.
Problem number two was that moving the trunks left zero spot for all of the TV stuff. Turns out wall hung media consoles are NOT cheap and most I found on the lower budget end were to large or without doors. I wanted to hide the gaming system, accessories, and other junk so doors were a must.
Hanging the crates solved where to set the stuff so the TV could be hung. However, as mentioned above I like to hide the mess and after awhile it really started to wear on me. One weekend when we were at Home Depot we picked up supplies to fashion some doors for the crates and our DIY Wall Media Cabinet was born.
Ok…..Let’s Create!
Supplies List
- 2 Crates
- 1 Sheet of Underlayment
- Cut 2 – 12-5/8 × 17-7/8 inches
- 4 – 5 gallon paint sticks
- Cut 4 – 15 inches long
- Cut 4 – 12.5 inches long
- Paint
- Screws – For hinges & for hanging
- Nails – 2 finishing nails
- 4 Hinges of choice
- 2 Knobs of choice
- Magnetic catch
- Drill
- Saw
- Wood glue
- Paintbrush
- Tape measure
- Pencil
- Hammer
The History of the Crates
These crates we have had for years. Seriously they have a history of their own. My sister and I would use our 40% off Michael’s coupons for purchasing one each week.
She whitewashed a bunch and then wanted a change and I wanted whitewashed ones. Swap. I have nine in total. I’ll show you what we did with the rest another time.
These crates have moved us, three times, carted Usbourne books for booths, served as booth display, held books in a vertical bookcase, been the base of a desk, and now two are being repurposed as the base for the DIY Wall Media Cabinet.
Hanging the Crates
The first step was hanging the crates on the wall. Nothing special here just screws through the back. No need to be pretty as I knew from the beginning I would make doors.
So… forewarning crates are NOT straight and this project took some trial and error because crates are NOT straight! You may encounter different obstacles than we did as each crate is uniquely it’s own. I will address the ‘outtakes’ we encountered. It really was a fun project even with the obstacles. Also my hubby was a great help when I was ready to smash it with a hammer.
Next step was to prep the crates for the doors. We reinforced the front bottom slat with some wood glue and small finishing nails.
Making the Doors
First step for the doors was cutting them to size and by them I mean the thin underlayment we bought. It came in a sheet of 4ft. × 4ft. Which is way more than we need but I will find a use for it. My husband just did this step as it’s been SO long since I played with power tools. In the beginning of this project I had my husband re-teach me / do most of it.
Cuts:
- 2 – cut to size 12-5/8 × 17-7/8 inches.
Next we grabbed our paint sticks and headed to the shed for some more sawing. We started by cutting the tapered end off the paint sticks and then cutting them the sizes needed for the door trim.
Cuts:
- 4 – cut to size 15 inches long
- 4 – cut to 12.5 inches long
5 gallon size 
Working with daddy
The cut pieces then got sanded on one side to remove the writing. You could skip this step by buying blank sticks but we had these on hand.
Next I used wood glue to adhere the paint stick trim to the underlayment door. They didn’t line up perfectly but I liked the more rustic look and felt it matched the crates. You could fill the gaps for a more seamless look if you prefer though.
Then I whitewashed the doors. I used a mix of about 50/50 of paint & water. I applied two coats.
The Outtakes
I add this section to encourage beginner DIYers. To duplicate this process again would be pretty simple as I already made all the mistakes for you.
Turns out this wasn’t a great first attempt at carpentry as working with warped crates and such thin wood and limited knowledge created a whole lot of extra challenges and a whole lot of extra holes. The extra screw holes add character plus I got to try out the wood glue + sawdust as hole filler.
We tried several different hinges and several different attachment methods including creating little spacers and it just wasn’t working right or looking right.
Wood glue + Sawdust 
Outtakes
In the end buying shorter screws and a washer for each worked and held great. So silly it was such a simple fix.
Hanging the doors
Now that we got all of the outtakes out of the way let’s finish this up.
You could choose to hang the hinges on the side and have the doors open like a standard cupboard door but I liked the idea of them pulling down like overhead cabinets in a camper.
Using the shorter screws and a washer we screwed the hinges on the door and then to the reinforced first slat on the bottom of the crate.
Adding the finishing touches
The knobs & the magnetic catch were then screwed into place. We got the catches to far back but instead of re-doing them we just made use of two spacers I made and didn’t need. The knob screws were to long but I didn’t care what the backside looked like or if they spun. I just wanted it done. You could purchase smaller screws.
Childproofing and hiding the cables
We have a toddler and moving the trunks and hanging the TV opened up a perfect electrical disaster. My daughter never really cared much about outlets and cords so the little plug things were enough. My son, different story. He is outlet and cord obsessed so we had to step up our child proofing game.
We ended up buying this kit off of Amazon and it worked nicely.
Then I put all the cables in a photo box leaving the lid off for air flow to hide the mess on top.
COMPLETE
It’s done. My husband didn’t divorce me (thanks for the help hon), the mess is hidden, the kids have a little area to play, I learned lots, AND it doesn’t look to shabby for something made from crates, paint sticks, and a sheet of underlayment board.
~ Your Turn to Create ~
I would love to hear if you gain inspiration from this post and make your very own……
DIY Wall Media Cabinet
