Milk Crate Patio Seating & Storage

I wanted to rig some quick "cheap" patio seating for a party we are having this weekend. We have a small back patio area currently with no seating and it'll be a few years before we decide to buy a decent patio set for the space. Insert* DIY Patio Seating that doubles as storage space for under a $100 if your thrifty like me!

Gather Your Supplies.

Milk Crates

1/2 inch thick Plywood cut into the exact length & width of your crates (for example 13x19)

2x4 cut 1/2 inch less than the total width of the inside of the crate. (for example, the inside width of the crate measured to 12 inches, I had them cut to 11.5 inches)

1 inch thick Foam Cushion Material (2 1/2 yards)

3 yards of outdoor/home decor fabric

Glue Gun/Glue Sticks

Staple Gun

Wood Screws

Hammer (just in case)

Line Up Your Wood.

Line up your wood pieces so that they sit 3/4" away from the edge of your board on each side.

Line Up Your Wood (continued)

Clamp Wood Pieces to Board

If you have clamps, use them to hold the pieces together so you can flip it over and prepare to drill. If not, you'll need to align the wood pieces on a flat surface and lay the wooden board on top, measure all ends to make sure the wood pieces are exactly 3/4" away from the edges of the board.

Drill

Drill four Pilot Holes

Drill in Wood Screws

Make sure to drill them flush to the board, but not too tight, you don't want to crack the board.

Check Your Measurements

If you don't have clamps, you may want to measure again after drilling to be sure your wood pieces didn't shift.

Make Sure It Fits Your Crate With Minimal Shifting/sliding.

Prepare Foam

Leave a Little Extra Around the Edges.

Add Glue

Glue Foam to Boards.

Line Up Boards on Fabric.

Prepare to Staple Fabric.

Make sure you have enough fabric around the edges so you can fold over the underside and staple the fabric to the boards.

Pull Tight and Staple.

If some of the staples don't go in all the way, don't fret. That's what the hammer is for!

Clean-ish Corners

The best way I figured to do this was to staple the long sides of the board first, you will want to pull the fabric in on the short side and grab the extra fabric at the corners and crease and fold over. There will be a tad bit of fabric bunching at the corner and thats perfectly ok!

Cut Off the Excess Fabric.

Done!

It took me less that 20 min to do the foam and fabric portion of the project once I got the hang of it. I made six in total. We set these up on our little back patio around the fire pit and my friends kept raving about them. These will definitely come in handy when we go on our next camping trip!