DIY Vintage Rolling Wood Crates

In our living room, under the book shelves I made, I had stacks of books. It didn't bother me much in the beginning, but it was starting to feel visually cluttered, so I started looking for nice storage to use there. I couldn't find anything affordable that was striking my fancy so decided to DIY it when I found these great vintage wood crates at a local antique store. One of them was in pretty good shape as you can see from the first picture, but I needed to make the other two match. I also wanted to add little casters so that the would be easier to use and wouldn't scratch the floors. It was a pretty simple project, the whole thing probably took about two hours. The full how two is below:

Supplies:

1. Vintage Wood Crates
2. Clear Satin Finish Polyurethane
3. Paintbrush
4. Brass Casters (I got mine from Amazon)
5. Metal Brush (go with softer bristles so it doesn't gouge the wood_
6. Sand Paper (heavy and finer grains)
7. Hammer

Process:

1. Use the metal brush to get as much rust off the metal as possible
2. Hammer in any loose nails or bowing metal pieces
3. Lightly sand the surface by hand, you don't want to take off any of the painted logo
4. Use the heavier sand paper to take off any hard edges on the top
5. Wipe down the entire box with a damp towel
6. Once it's dry, paint a coat of clear polyurethane over the entire crate. After it dries, see how it looks and do another if you think it's needed
7. Place the casters on the bottom where you'd like them to be, mark the holes with a pencil
8. Screw pilot holes 
9. Screw in casters
10. You're done!  

 This is the before and after of the shelf with the crates, looks so much cleaner!!