Cantilevered Milk Crate Storage Bench

Charlie Vinz of Chicago built this cantilevered bench himself for next to nothing. The milk crates provide a storage base and he used 2x4's from left over from framing his house to mount it all to the wall. The idea's pretty industrious...

And while this particular execution wasn't done with prettiness as a priority, we could see this exact same idea built with more precision looking pretty terrific. We're thinking in a mudroom or entryway: you could sweep easily below the cantilevered design, sit on the bench to tie/untie shoes, and store said shoes in the milk crates. Via: South 12th.

Apartment Therapy rounded up more milk crate reuse projects right here.

Comments (27)

Milk Crates, huh? This is kind of taking it to a new low here on AT.

It's like finger nails on a blackboard for me.

It's a neat idea, but I'm wondering how to make it look nicer. It almost looks cool, bordering on junky though.

It may not be pretty, but it's a nice idea.

Just awful...

For me this is a very retro trip down Memory Lane! This is what people did in the late '60s/early '70s, used milk crates, often combined with concrete cinder blocks stolen from construction sites, to create bookshelves/storage units. By 1978, most of my friends and I had graduated to "real" furniture, :) It was fun at the time, though!

This would be more compelling if it were all spray painted white. That'd be fresh and clean. Great for storage, but as a bench, how much weight can it support?

Oh no. I hated this look in college and I especially hate it now. Please don't tell me there are bread crates for storage under the bed.

This would work in a "playhouse" for the kid's toys.

Tacky even for AT. This looks like a half finished project. 2 words come to mind, hot mess.

I could see this outdoors, but as an interior component it just looks messy and cheap. If you have leftover lumber, why not just build a box?

Milk crates belong at the grocery store where they were stolen from...

But that rug - It's a keeper.
Any resources?

At least paint it. Silver would look industrial, maybe that would help.

Okay execution to a bad idea.

Yup, looks pathetic to me.

What a bunch of stuck up elitists. It's the idea that is interesting. Sheesh.

I agree with Nevanna. People will always use milk crates as furniture, for a variety of reasons. Heck, I did it 20 years ago as an impoverished student new to San Francisco. This is an inventive idea with lots of possibilities. I would have liked it two decades ago, and I like it now -- although I'm happy to say I have a few other options these days. Knock on wood.

why must everything be painted white?!

that said, this does look pretty ridiculous. I'm just sayin'

a coat of paint, any color, would only make it more tacky.

This reminds me of the kitchen shelves made of milk crates featured here a while back.

Sure, they are recycled and practical. But they just don't look very nice.

it's craptacular.

This is a joke, right?

Depends - if it were in an ultra slick loft it would look like modern art... esp with a nicer wood top, or the wood and hinge painted black or white.

Not all milk boxes are stolen, esp if the company went out of business.

I find it hard to believe one could actually sit on it however.

To Nevanna,

Can you please tell me what is interesting about this idea? It is just the same old, same old that has been used for decades.

maybe if it was all painted the one colour (like white) it would look less like milk crates?

Geez, people, calm down! The milk crates are not going to attack you and take over your home. I think it's great that AT is showing something different.

I gotta agree milk crates look kinda tacky, but I love the resourcefulness of this. It says 'cantilevered' so I would assume that it could hold a decent amount of weight.
I wonder if something similar could be put together from apple crates, or the drawers out of an old broken chest.

whoa, I had no idea this was so controversial!
Thanks for the responses and encouragement, though.
Hot mess - yay!

For the record, this seems to have been taken a little out of context. I am not a college student. I chose to put this on the wall of my bedroom even though I probably could have afforded, I dunno, a custom Danish teak cantilevered mid-century style cabinet with rolling doors and embroidered cushions, but that would have taken all the fun out of it for me. This is a purely experimental piece I made by following a strict set of rules: designed and made in under 2 hours, no leaving the house for any materials, and no power tools (out of courtesy of neighbors - this ties into the under 2 hours rule as it was late at night). It didn't cost next to nothing, there were NO expenses.
It holds up as many people as can fit on it (3ish), the floor mat is from an island in the south pacific, and this is a ridiculously crappy picture of the whole thing.