A sad, old crib sat at a thrift store — not useful as a baby bed for safety reasons, this piece seemed destined for the scrap pile! Until Cristin came along, that is… she saw some untapped potential in its pretty spindles and simple shape, and came up with a clever way to breathe new life into an old piece.
She found some cabinet doors in a garbage pile that were the perfect size for shelves, and removed a few brackets and braces from the crib to help reinforce the new legs. With a little creativity and a new coat of paint, this little unit serves as a clever magazine storage rack and functional shelves! Cristin says:
My favorite part about this project is that an existing piece that couldn't be used in its existing form was transformed into a practical, functional and surprisingly unique piece of furniture. Obsolete baby furniture is turning up all over the place, and with a little vision these pieces can be upcycled and repurposed into interesting commodity furniture.
Thanks Cristin! Readers, if you want to learn more about Cristin's crib-to-shelf project, check it out on her blog Eve of Reduction. She also has a book launching next month on Amazon.com about decluttering and repurposing at home — check it out here.
(Images: Cristin Frank)
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What a great reuse of a crib...
I love seeing pieces destined for a landfill re-purposed into something useful.
Wow, that is really a wonderful way to reuse that. Great work and great inspiration.
i didn't see that coming. you're the master of utility.
Huh. I could see it being used in the bathroom for towels and such.
How do you even think like that? Amazing.
Excellent! Love that you flipped it on end! Good job!
I wouldn't have come up that! Great job!
Very clever and resourceful! Good job!
It JUST so happens I have access to a really nice, but obsolete, solid wood crib that nobody in the family wanted to get rid of, but nobody knew what to do with it. This is the perfect solution! You... you're good. You're very, very good.
What a terrific idea, and the end result is great!
Serious comment, I thought it was illegal to sell old cribs, so don't expect to find too many of these out in the wild.
Genius!
That is a fantastic reuse!
SkippingDaisies- I just had to look into that. Apparently it's not illegal, just highly discouraged.
This is one of the BEST reuses of a crib that I have seen. As a designer of nurseries & children' rooms, I once repurposed 2 cribs(twins) into the headboards for their beds. Used the end rails as the separations between the beds. Would love to post this somewhere if I could.
What a great idea! Have never seen this done before.
Some ARE illegal, wish I'd seen this when my son outgrew his 10+ years ago...My mom turned it into a rabbit hutch. It is illegal to sell drop-sided cribs, but this doesn't look like that.
That is amazing! Congrats on the wonderful rehab.
I so wish my brain worked this way. What an excellent project--it's awesome!
genius!
clever
Wonderful reuse of a piece like this and great inspiration for others!
What a great idea! So happy to see items repurposed rather than thrown out. Plus, this opens the door for so many similar reuses.
I expected the crib to be disassembled. This is even way better. KUDOS are in order!!
WOW! This is probably the most clever thing I've seen on this site in years.
Nicely done...I have no idea how you even thought up this plan, you're good!
I've also seen these old cribs hung on the wall and reused as craft supply holders, also a great idea.
The previous owners of my house had done exactly this (we inherited all the furniture).
I took it apart to make a bean trellis. Detach the sides, attach into an A shape... done.
Love it! What a great idea.
Wow, nice.
Thank you for all your kind words!
Charmgirl, happy to have you repost - just ask that you link back to Eve of Reduction.
This is great! We have one side of an old crib hung on the wall in our bathroom to hang magazines from in the same way, but shelves would have been nice!
Wow! How clever!
This is kind of....brilliant, really. I would so do this, having seen it. :)
It did turn out well. And, the magazines could be hung on the side; thus giving more room for ? towells etc.
Very unexpected, and adorable.
What a great idea!!! I love imaginative reuses of junk, but this one's particularly endearing. After I found parts of an obsolete crib at an estate sale, I turned one of the sides into a footboard for my bed. (I have white iron bed frame but chose to buy it without its beautiful - but rather high - footboard, because my 1920's bungalow bedroom is tiny.) The crib side makes a nice low footboard; keeps my bed neat without intruding into the air space.
Nice & Cool!!!
Never would have thought of that! This is genius!!
Nice one I concur with the genius comment!
Sorry this look horrible and I wouldn't give it house room. Surely repainting it and donating it to someone who could use it for purpose would have been a far better solution.
Jonathan
Okay. That is really great.
i am so in love with this! and to top it off not a hard redo. sometimes you just need to look at stuff sideways lol
Fantastic! Great creativity, and so useful!