Swap Out Standard Kitchen Drawers For Vintage Crates To Hold Produce

Storing pantry items beautifully is often a balance of aesthetics and functionality. Cabinets and bins for storing things like produce and root vegetables can often be more utilitarian, such as simple wooden bins or baskets tucked into the darkness of cabinets and under sinks. If you're looking for a solution with a bit more style, Instagram's @decinces_design_build shows off how they use rustic and beautiful vintage fruit and vegetable crates to store their produce. The crates replace ordinary cabinet drawers, not only giving you an easily accessible and open place to keep veggies, but offering an upgrade that makes it look like your kitchen was pulled from a chic European farmhouse.

The vintage crates are attached to drawer slides, replacing the existing pull-out drawers in the cabinet. Using large pull-out bins keeps these items in a cool, dry, and dark place, but also allows you to easily see what you have when pulled out, leading to less unfortunate surprises in the form of rotted onions and sprouting potatoes.

You can usually find vintage crates meant to hold produce in second hand venues like flea markets and antique shops, as well as online marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist. Options include open slatted crates or more closed and contained ones in numerous sizes. Open slats are great since they allow greater airflow around your produce, but you could also use solid flat crates, or opt for deeper crates that allow more storage volume. Produce crates work well, but you may also find that soda and wine crates can be turned into rustic drawers easily.

The size of crates you will need will be determined by the dimensions of the cabinet you are adding the bins to. Just attach the drawer slide hardware to the base of the crate along the sides and the interior or the cabinets and lock them into place. Since the weight of the wood and the contents can be heavy, its best to use higher weight capacity hardware for your slides, like these SLIDEWAY 200 Lbs Heavy Duty Drawer Slides available from Amazon.

Leave the drawers visible for a rustic vibe, or add doors or a curtain to keep them out of sight. If you do not have an extra cabinet to outfit with drawers, you can modify other pieces of furniture for similar results, such as an old dresser or bookshelf. For a simpler aesthetic, leave the crates in their original distressed finish, or paint them for a pretty cottage-style look to match the rest of your kitchen. You can repurpose fruit crates that have been used, or buy new wooden crates from shipping retailers and finish them as desired.

Shallow bins can also be mounted inside a taller pantry to store items on drawer slides, or you can place your bins on a rolling cart you can pull out when in use to unlock extra pantry space. A cart with crates makes a great renter-friendly version that doesn't involve installation but still gives you a place to store your produce with a lot of vintage charm. If you have lots of wall space, you could also adapt this clever crate wall idea with some netting or additional board across the front to create storage bins.