Repurposed Vintage Cheese Box For Fall

I picked up this 1980s cheese box at the thrift store quite a while ago.

It was priced at $3.99, so I figured I could do something with it. For that price you just can't leave it behind, can you?

And then the something never came to me. The poor cheese box just sat in the corner of the garage.

It was very close to being set aside to be sold at my next garage sale, but while looking at wreaths at the craft store and finding none that thrilled me, it dawned on me that I could make a wreath out of that old cheese box.

A wreath and a cheese box are both round, right? Do you see where I'm going here?

DIY Cheese Box Wreath For Fall

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Supplies

• Round Cheese Box
• Thin Piece Of Wood for shelf
• Saw-Tooth Hanger Kit
• Glue Gun and glue sticks
• Woodland Animals
• Small bag of miscellaneous fall elements
• Preserved Moss

I purchased the sisal hedgehog, mushrooms, and fall elements at JoAnn Fabric And Crafts. I have also seen similar sisal characters at Michael's.

Instructions

This round vintage cheese box was made by Seymour Woodenware Co. and stenciled sometime in the 1980s (my guess based on the stenciling design).

Over the years, while on thrift store runs, I've seen these stenciled in all sorts of patterns, but they always seem to be country-style stencils - quilt patterns, pineapples, and geese.

It's not really my style anymore (back in the day, I was the queen of country decor), so I didn't feel any qualms about remaking it into something I would use.

The first thing you need to do is attach the saw-tooth hanger to the back of the cheese box.

Since I am hanging this on the wall of my kitchen, the saw-tooth hanger was the best choice.

But if you want to hang it from a traditional door wreath hanger, you would want to purchase a D-Ring picture hanger that stands out from the box a little more and can easily slip over the hook of the wreath hanger.

Next, you will want to attach a shelf to the inside bottom of the cheese box.

I actually had this piece of wood in my wood stash in the garage. I believe it might be a piece of lath. Whatever you use, you want to find something lightweight and easy to cut.

I glued the "shelf" to the sides of the cheese box.

The reason this is necessary is to have a horizontal surface for your woodland forest scene.

Tip Of The Day: If you have one of these 18V Compact Glue Guns from Ryobi, you can cover the drip plate with aluminum foil and just throw the aluminum foil away at the end of the project.

I know that's what the drip plate is for (catching the stray glue globs), but I don't know if I'm more of a slob with the glue gun than ordinary people. Without the aluminum foil, my glue gun was still a little too messy for my liking. I like to keep my tools extra squeaky clean and tidy, including the drip plate area.

Using your squeaky clean glue gun, adhere the main characters to the shelf.

Glue a layer of moss to the inside bottom of the cheese box. Sort of like the forest floor.

I also put a little bit of moss on top of the shelf around the mushrooms and hedgehog.

I then finished it off by adding the pinecones, pumpkin, berries and orange wooden florettes from the packet of falln elements .

I'm not going to pretend to know what the orange wooden florettes are supposed to be, but they were colorful and included in the packet of fall doo-dads, so I felt obligated to use them.

From this point, all that is left is to hang up the cheese box turned fall wreath.

What About The Tulips?

You have probably noticed that I did not sand off the tulips on the side of the cheese box. They didn't bother me enough to warrant spending the time sanding them and restaining the box.

And I also am not using the lid with all the baskets stenciled on it. I am going to save that for another project (which probably will include sanding followed by re-staining or painting the lid).

As with 90% of the projects on my site, quick and simple are the keys. It is rare that I show a project that can't be finished in a few hours.

Now, let's stop by the other Thrift Store Decor Team's projects for September.

Other Creative Upcycling Ideas You May Enjoy:

• 10 Creative Thrift Store Glassware Repurposing Ideas
• Rustic Birch Bark Vase DIY
• Repurposed Yardstick Craft Idea