So, I built a little box...

...but let me start by saying that I did not reinvent the wheel here.  These fun, rustic centerpiece boxes have been showing up all over blogland, so I am definitely not going to claim this as my own great idea!  I MAY however, have kicked it up a notch and still managed to do it on the cheap!

Just so you get a feel for what I am talking about, here is one done by Shanty2Chic (love their stuff btw...you should definitely check out their site!).

Here is another version done by my buddy Gail at MyRepurposedLife (another uber talented girl, check out her site as well!).  She was lucky enough to have fun handles and reclaimed wood!

I wish I could say that I found some amazing reclaimed wood to make my boxes, but sadly that was not the case!  The next best thing?  In this case it was a trip to Home Depot (I am an equal opportunity consumer however, and many times I go to Lowes!) I knew I wanted the wood to be rustic so I was not being particular about quality...I found these boards, which I think are some kind of fencing for about $2 each.

They come in 6 ft. lengths but because I was taking them in my car, I had the guys at HD cut them in half.  When buying these, make sure you lay them on the floor to get the flattest pieces possible.

From there I just built a basic box.  I used a palm sander to smooth them out a little  To hold the box together I used a nail gun and Gorilla wood glue.  Once that was done I applied stain that I had on hand,  added two coats of  Rustoleum Wipe on Poly, dug out two handles from my hardware stash in the garage and VOILA!

This was my first attempt:

Now, I have to say...when you look at it empty, it is not all that impressive.

Trust me when I say...I am NOT good at arranging floral arrangements of any kind, it is just not my thang!  Having said that, this was pretty much a no-brainer.  I happen to have some cute little mason jars with wire handles that I purchased from Kirkland's last year, but you could definitely us regular ol' mason jars instead.  I filled them with a miscellaneous dried beans that I picked up at the 99 cent store.  And because a "live" flame sort of freaks me out these days...I used the little battery lights.  Threw in some miscellaneous fall foliage and called it good.

Here is what it looks like on my dining room table:

Whatcha' think?  Kind of cute, huh?!

So, you are probably wondering how exactly, I kicked it up a notch, right?!  Well, I had so much fun making the first box (and as projects go,it doesn't get much easier than this one), I decided to make one for Melissa.  For this one I had another idea...I figured she was probably going to put it on her entry way table, where only one side of the box would show, so using my Silhouette, I cut out a little saying and stenciled it on.  Here is what it looks like on one side:

Then when it is time to decorate for Christmas, all she has to do is just remove the fall goodies and turn the box around...this is what you will see:

Putting different words would not have worked on my own centerpiece since mine runs down the middle of the table, but I thought this would super fun if you only saw one side at a time.  Since then I have been making more, in various sizes, for an upcoming Christmas boutique.  Here are a few:

And on the flip side:

And because I am running out of miscellaneous handles for the ends, I decided that add rope handles would be sort of fun:

Thoughts?  Is this something you would buy from a boutique?

Till next time...

This post linked to:

House of Hepworth
Primitive and Proper
My Repurposed Life
Miss Mustard Seed
Kristen's Creations    
 






There's a skinny girl who lives inside of me that's screaming to get out...I can usually shut her up with cookies!