The Stanley Man: DIY Radio Flyer Wagon turned Bookshelf

You can’t ride in my old red wagon…You can’t ride in my old red wagon…

Well, there was a camp song about a purple wagon and a team that’s draggin’ but I can’t really remember the rest. In all seriousness though, you can’t ride in my old red wagon being that it’s now a hanging bookshelf. 

So Becca came to me with a wagon and an idea (as usual). I took off with it and made it much grander than she envisioned (also the usual).  I ended up with something completely different than what she was thinking. However, she realized that my idea was better (always the usual).   

I started this project off by disassembling the old red wagon that Becca scrounged up from the trash or some antique store. Now mind you, as I was taking off the wheels I was thinking two things: 1 – I should probably get my tetanus shot up to date, and 2 – these wheels would be perfect to make a soap box car. . . Then I followed the rabbit trail all the way to wonderland and ended up with the strong desire to have a soap box derby down our street with all the kids. Wouldn’t that be awesome?!

 Ok, back to the rusty old Radio Flyer. So once I took the bolts off that were holding the wheels and axles on I sprayed the wagon with a Rustoleum clear matte finish spray paint to ensure neither I nor the kids would contract tetanus or anything.  I put 2 coats on the entire wagon to be sure it had a uniform look.   

Next I needed to figure out the depths of the shelves. By measuring one of the kid's books I knew I would need to have the shelf be about 8 inches deep. I have a couple pallets sitting next to my compost pile that I saved for projects such as this. So I pried off a couple pieces of the pallet and cut them to size. One 4 inch deep piece to go on the inside of the wagon perpendicular to the sides and another that was a little wider than the wagon to make my 8 inch shelf. I also have some of the wood left over from the chandelier that I was able to use as supports for the shelves. Once I had the two shelves built, I cut two additional pieces of the pallet wood so that is was slightly narrower than the bottom(where the wheels used to be). I felt like these pieces give the shelf more stability when my screw traveled from the wood on the back, through the metal wagon and in to the shelf. It also gave me a place to attach my picture wire so I could hang it on the wall. 

I put one shelf on the very bottom of the inside of the wagon and one in the middle. I think it turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Now on to my soap box car…