Upcycled My Old Dresser Drawers!

Yosig
by Yosig
5 Materials
$30
3 Hours
Easy

I'm fairly handy around the house, tinkering with a leaky toilet or flickering light socket, but actually making something for my own use is uncharted territory.



A few months back, a dresser from my kids' bedroom had become too rickety and we needed to replace it. I had been lurking on Hometalk for a while at that point and when my wife asked me to schlep the piece of junk to the curb, I knew that I wouldn't be able to. This was repurposing treasure!



After countless hours of scouting posts for inspiration and devouring the Discussions forum for tips and pointers, I was finally ready to take the plunge. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed making it!



It started off with this hall space between the children's bedrooms that is overflow for toys and books. Eww, I know. But so much potential!


We started off by laying out everything we'd need outside. I didn't have a tarp on hand, so I convinced my daughter to donate some cardboard boxes that she uses to make dollhouses.


The first step was lightly sanding down the glossy edge of the drawer to create a nice surface for the primer to stick to.


Then, on goes the primer.


All the kids were so eager to paint, I couldn't help but feel a bit like Tom Sawyer.


Viola! On a hot afternoon, we only needed a couple hours for everything to dry and they were ready to hang!

I forgot to take pictures of hanging the shelves up, but this was actually the most difficult part. I made sure to use some heavy duty bolts, as the shelves would be holding books and I was concerned about the weight. Also, missed in the picture is a new light fixture that I installed!


That's it for now, hope to be back sooner than later to post some new projects!

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  • Gail Gail on Oct 23, 2020

    How did you bolt it to the wall.

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  • Lisa Meeker Hathaway Lisa Meeker Hathaway on Jul 21, 2018

    I did this with my Aunt's antique dresser. I incorporated the whole dresser into the shelves as the moulding was pretty. I also used moulding and other pieces for other shelves. I have bought rope moulding for edges. I started this wall unit ovet 2 years ago in my girl cave. It has been on hold for a long while as other things needed taken care of.

    • Yosig Yosig on Jul 24, 2018

      Hi, Lisa, I'd love to see how you incorporated the whole dresser! I still have the empty body of the dresser sitting around and have been brainstorming what to do with it. I'm leaning towards making it into a dog bed but would love to see other ideas!


  • Eli Eli on Nov 12, 2018

    Great use of wall space!

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