Upcycled Nesting Box … Transformed into Boot Storage

 

Ever since we’ve been raising chickens, we’ve been accumulating chicken-themed stuff … ties, books, towels, objects, etc.  Some of the chicken-stuff we’ve bought ourselves, but some we’ve received as gifts. And not that we’re turning all cat-lady on you …i n a chicken-kinda-way, but I guess you could say, chickens is something we’re becoming known for, in our otherwise suburban-looking-lives.

 

 

Anyway, one of my favorite gifts this past year was an old used, rusty nesting box.  I know…sounds incredible…right? I’m sure it’s on the top of your wish list too.

But seriously, it really is cool looking … has ton of character … fits our family’s chicken theme … and was the solution to 2 problems I was dealing with. (And for those of you who don’t have chickens, a nesting box is just what it sounds like – where chickens go to nest and lay their eggs.)

 

 

It all started when our dear friends, Brandi and Kevin Wigley, picked up an old nesting box from a farm in south Georgia. We paid them a visit specifically to take a look at their latest find … and when we saw it, we instantly wanted one … and I knew just what I wanted to do with it.

I had 2 problems needing a solution … right outside our backdoor towards the chicken coop: 1. a better place to store our boots … than just strewn all about; and 2. making use of an oddly proportioned space.

Boot storage: I needed a place to keep all of our muddy boots and old shoes … outside, so that all the mud and crud wouldn’t be brought inside. Our boots would typically just sit in a messy pile … getting wet from the rain and filled with leaves … and even an occasional critter or two who would find their way inside. Not something you wanted to stick your dry feet into. So this storage solution needed to keep our boots dry and be up off the ground so that leaves and critters would be less likely to find their way into our boots.

 

 

Oddly proportioned space: The spot where we typically piled our boots is too narrow to put a bench or any other piece of furniture, but too wide to do nothing with.

Nesting Box Retro-Fit

Unbenounced to me that old chicken box that our friends the Wigleys showed us didn’t really work for them. So Britt sneakily bought it from them on behalf of my in-laws … and they gave it to me as a birthday present a few weeks later. The Wigleys actually hand-delivered it with a bow and all! (Thanks Kev and Brandi!)

 

 

Now I could have used it as-is; however, I wanted to make it a bit more rain proof…and lift it off the ground a bit to make it more ergonomically and aesthetically pleasing (i.e., I didn’t want to bend down as far to store my boots … and it looked dumpy sitting directly on the ground).

But all that was an easy fix…

 

• • From the frame of an unusually large pallet and a few scraps of PT 4×4’s I had lying around, I created a small platform that I simply placed my nesting box on top of.

• • From pallet boards and a few 1×2’s, I built a back for my originally backless nesting box. Although not sealed tight, it keeps 97% of the rain out…which is enough for me. A few screws later and I was in business.

 

All that was left was drying and cleaning off our boots, placing them in their new home…and we had the perfect boot storage solution, for an oddly-proportioned space, for the Scotts … a family known for having chickens!

 

 

And the bonus is, there’s enough room for some go-to gardening and chicken-tending tools too!

 

 

So what do you think?

Regardless, what old thing originally used for something else have you re-used for a brand new purpose?

I’d love to see how you’ve creatively come up with a solution for something … in a chicken-or-some-other-themed-kinda-way.

Take care friends,