Turn a wooden crate into a LEGO® minifigure display!

Our Memorial Day weekend was RAINY and WET. In fact, almost every day has been rainy and wet for the past two months. We needed to mow the lawn, and we were supposed to go to a fun picnic, but since the rain prohibited basically every outside activity we spent our weekend crafting! This project was fun, simple, and the boys are thrilled with the finished product.

DIY Wooden Crate Minifigure Storage

Our aim was not to hold every single one of the boys’ minifigures (I’m not even going to tell you how many Aidan owns… but it’s in the triple digits!) but rather to display a few favorites. We made two display boxes, and Aidan and Gresham each have one on their dresser.

These would make great gifts! It would be fun to personalize one with a child’s name on the side of the crate.

DIY Wooden Crate LEGO Minifigure Display

Here’s what you need for this project:

  • Half Wooden Crate – We found ours at Michael’s for $6.99 (then we used a coupon!). It is 11.75 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and 4.75 inches deep.
  • Craft Wood – Ours is Art Minds brand, from Michael’s. The dimensions are 12 inches by 1.5 inches, and they come in packs of two for $1.99. You will need three total wood pieces, so two packs.
  • Acrylic Paint – Two 2 oz. bottles of the color of your choice.
  • Saw – For trimming the craft wood.
  • Sand paper
  • Wood glue or hot glue
  • 18 flat 2 x 4 LEGO® bricks
  • Super Glue
  • Ruler
  • Polyurethane – We used Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane, clear gloss

DIY Wooden Crate LEGO Minifigure Display

Step 1: Cut your craft wood shelves to fit your crate. Then sand everything well to get rid of rough edges.

DIY Wooden Crate LEGO Minifigure Display

Step 2: Glue the shelves in place with wood glue or hot glue.

DIY Wooden Crate LEGO Minifigure Storage

Step 3: Paint the minifigure display. For the first one, I painted the shelves first and then glued it together when it was all dry. I think I liked that method better… It was a little tricky to paint with the shelves in place. It took two coats of paint to get it to cover well, but then again I used that cheap acrylic paint from the craft section!

Step 4: Once the paint is completely dry, spray all sides with polyurethane.

Step 5: Attach the flat LEGO® bricks with Super Glue. We actually tried E6000 glue first, and it still wasn’t firm at all after 4 hours. Super Glue did the trick! Just mark your spots ahead of time, because once you stick the bricks down with Super Glue you won’t be able to adjust them.

Let everything dry thoroughly.

DIY Wooden Crate Minifigure Display

Then it’s time to choose which figures to display!

DIY Wooden Crate LEGO Minifigure Display

DIY Wooden Crate Minifigure Display

DIY Wooden Crate LEGO Minifigure Display

There are many ways to create your own minifigure display! Here are some more ideas:

If you’re looking for LEGO® building ideas, be sure to browse our LEGO category – we have step-by-step instructions for many original projects!

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO® group of companies which does not sponsor. authorize, or endorse this site.

2 Comments

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  1. tove maren May 28, 2015

    I love these. I actually just made some shelves a few weeks ago (and will blog about them this weekend). Your crates are an adorable idea - I love how you have them painted and they are portable! creative

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  2. Lisa @ Pilgrim Living May 29, 2015

    I LOVE these Sarah! I agree, I think that they would make a great gift, and I thank you that I now know what to give my nephew for Christmas. He isn't easy to buy for and since we try to make most of our gifts, it can be hard to think of new ideas. Last year I made him a LEGO tote bag and I guess this year we will keep with the LEGO theme. I don't think he will mind ;-)

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