Cut a piece of half inch lumber to fit the inside lip of the crate. Note: measure and cut carefully so that it sits on top of the little rim and is not likely to fall in.
Cut foam to fit the wood piece exactly. Hot glue it to the worst side of the wood. Use quilt batting to cover the foam and hot glue to the wood.
Next cut a piece of fabric large enough to cover the top and to wrap around to the underneath side of the lid. Give yourself a couple of extra inches [2] on every side. Iron the fabric.
Lay the lid foam side down onto the wrong side of the fabric. Center it and then beginning on one of the long sides fold the fabric over about and inch and hot glue to the middle of the long side of the lid. Next turn the lid and glue the fabric to the center of that side. Now do the two shorter ends the same way.
If you have ever done any sort of upholstery this is the same idea, you are just using hot glue
instead of staples or tacks. You can of course use staples or tacks if you prefer. Glue just worked better for me on this job. Work you way to each corner making sure you do not pull one side more than the other. The idea is to keep the fabric straight and square while getting a nice tight, firm fit. You do the corners by folding in the point of the fabric and then glue, next pull a little at a time and glue to try to remove as many wrinkles as possible. You will have wrinkles, you just want them to be as consistent
and small as possible.
Add a loop of twill tape. Hot glue worked on one of my boxes and failed on another so I screwed that loop in with a small screw. A staple gun will work as well.
Measure the height and circumference of your box. Cut a piece of batting that size. Glue the batting around the outside of the box.
Next measure the box from the little rim on the underneath side up the side and around the top into the little recessed lip area. You will want your pretty fabric to cover this area so that none of the box itself shows. Cut your fabric that exact height and a length that will go around the box with an extra 2 inches to fold over. Iron your fabric and iron one inch of a fold into one end. Beginning at one of the short ends glue the unfolded end of the fabric to the bottom of the box on the straight edges. Note the photo.
Leave the corners for now. Once you have gotten all the way around then go back and put a little glue in the corners and smooth the fabric to the glue trying not to have any large wrinkles. Next begin gluing the unfolded edge into the top of the box on the straight edges and then go back and smoothly glue the corners into place.
Put your lid in the box and you now have a footstool/coffee-table or extra seating. If you put a board inside the box bottom or cardboard you can put smaller items inside. Otherwise it is great for storing yarn or other bulky item.
