Three Ways to Use a Wood Garden Trug

I found a wooden garden or tool trug at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore and thought it could use a little upcycle.

I painted the outside and the edges a fresh green color, stained everything, and added a matte clear coat. Trugs are traditionally used in a garden to hold pots and gardening tools and to collect produce or flowers. I am sharing three different ways to use one in the home.

It makes a fantastic coffee table organizer. Use it to hold remotes, tissues, coasters, reading glasses, and books.

The remote controls are in the McCoy frog planter that a propped up on the edge of the trug. A favorite rock and piece of driftwood, greenery in a basket--all add natural, organic, and decorative elements. Readers are easy to find when kept in their own space. A sketchbook that I use often also sits in the trug.

The wood garden trug also makes a fun, portable bar cart, perfect for an impromptu, outdoor cocktail party or an indoor game night. Include your favorite alcohol, stirrers and shakers, glasses and mugs in the crate.

There's even space for a cutting board and knife. Just add ice and mixers and you are set.

A wood trug is the perfect way to organize items on the kitchen counter. 

Tea and snacks, dessert plates and herbs all look less cluttered with corralled in one container. 

There are so many other ways to use a tote like this--in the bathroom, a kid's room, a craft space, or as intended, in the garden. Organizing utilitarian objects in a pretty way is a design tip that any home can put into practice.