a 'crate' idea!

The biggest challenge my husband and I face living in our apartment is a common one...STORAGE!  Not only functional storage, but pretty storage that I can decorate with!  I bought some wooden crates from a craft store quite a few years back.  I had stained them at the time and they pretty much were just lying around in my room.  When I went off to college I took them with me for under the bed storage.  Then when we moved into our apartment, I wasn't sure what to do with them.  Then it hit me! Bookshelf!  My husband had a few books and I had a good few books that we just didn't know what to do with.  I positioned the crates and filled 'em up with our books.  Some I stood up, some I put on their side.  Then, I decorated!  I used the vases left over from our candy buffet at our wedding and filled them with candy (what else?!).  I put flowers in others and displayed one of our monograms we used at the wedding and an album of our engagement pictures as well.  My husband and I are so happy with the outcome.  I would love to buy a few more to stain and build up the shelving...but, I'll wait until they go on sale!
This shelving would go great in a kids room, paint the crates however you want.  Also, these would be ideal for office storage where organization needs are constantly changing (your shelves can change too!).  We love the unique feel it gives to our apartment and I love the fact that I can rearrange it often (to satisfy my decorating ADD!).

p.s our engagement pictures were taken by Lauren Mason of Piccadilly Pictures in Orlando, Florida and Jacob Vorpahl of One Bright Spot Photography in Jacksonville, Florida.  These two are totally worth checking out!