DIY { basket with casters }

 

Yesterday I was super ambitious.

I made a basket with casters.  That wasn’t all I did – that wouldn’t be super ambitious, maybe just plain ambitious.  But I did all the chores of the day, and made a swing, and made a basket with casters.  So I am calling that super ambitious.

I’ll share the swing later- my knot-tying expert hubby needs to hang it still.

For now, this will have to do…

I have seen these for sale before, but couldn’t really find an actual tutorial, so I took pictures along the way to share with you.  It was easy; you could make one. 

Here is what you need:

 

Tools:

chop saw (or have Home Depot or Lowes cut the boards for you)

screwdriver (if you’re tough) or a power drill

(Note: I did not need the hammer pictured)

 

Materials:

large, sturdy basket

four 1x4s, each cut the width of the basket (my basket bottom is square so they are all the same length)

four casters (mine are from Ikea)

washers (see note below)

12  -  1 and 1/4 inch sheetrock screws

16 small screws for casters (not pictured)

 

Here’s a closer look at those materials…

Again, I didn’t end up using the hammer and nails! 

 

Step-by-step:

There are really only three steps to this:

1. Build the platform.

2. Attach casters to platform.

3. Attach basket to platform.

 

Now let’s go through it with a little more detail. 

 

1. Building the platform.

The first thing I did was sand down my boards with an electric sander and round the corners a bit…

You won’t need to do this if you are buying new boards, but mine were repurposed and actually had cement on them, so I had to.  I was going to stain them but someone is borrowing my stain, ahem-MOM, so I’m leaving them unfinished for now.

Next, laid out my boards in this odd pattern (I’ll show you why in a minute), and put two screws in each intersection, not putting any screws in the centers of the intersections…

Make sure your screws are long enough to go into the second board and be secure, but not so long that they stick out on the other side.  I laid out the boards in this strange pattern so that the wheels would fit on the outside corners without making it as tall as if the boards also met at those corners… does that make sense?  It will in the next step!

 

2. Attaching the casters to the platform.

This is where I put the casters…

I am lazy and only used two screws per caster.  You should be an overachiever and use four each.  Also, spin your wheels around and make sure they don’t hit any of the other boards, to be sure they can roll freely.

This is what the rolling platform looks like when it’s done and you flip it over…

See how the wheels are attached to the top layer of the platform, and the lower layer adds stability without making the whole thing any taller?  The whole thing looks like this…

 

3. Attaching the basket to the platform.

I did this with four screws and some washers.  If you buy washers, buy ones with a small enough hole in the center that the screw doesn’t go right through, and large enough around so it doesn’t go through the crevices in your basket.  I am using large with smaller washers because that is what I had and I didn’t want to go buy the right ones.

Set your basket centered on top of the platform, and secure it with the screws and washers at each of the four intersections (where the boards cross) on your rolling platform, gently putting the screws through the nearest crack and trying not to do a lot of damage, like so…

I just eyeballed this, shooting for the very center of each intersection so I wouldn’t hit the screws that hold the platform together.  And don’t tighten them too tight; if you do your basket twigs will likely be crushed and over time, break and tear away from the fasteners.  Just make it so the basket is snug to the platform with no wiggle room and then stop.

And there you have it!  A totally groovy rolling basket!

I love that mine is rustic and utilitarian at the same time.  I still might stain the platform darker.  We’ll see.

My son said we needed to test it by putting his sister in it…

Tested and approved!

I have shelves in my bathroom for towels and this slides neatly under the shelves to contain hubby’s logger dirty clothes.  Logger dirty clothes have tree sap and gas on them… you don’t want to mix that stuff with normal clothes.  Does that make sense to you all?  Because he doesn’t seem to grasp the concept! 

So do you think you could handle this project?  Where could you use a rolling basket?