The Intentional Junk Drawer

by Mother Daughter Projects

We were invited to join in a thrift store challenge over at Creator's Studio. We were challenged to make a $10 thrift store item new and beautiful again using Rust-Oleum projects.
We loved the challenge and couldn't wait to get started!

the intentional junk drawer, organizing, painted furniture

…everyone has that drawer in their home, you know the one, that holds change, stamps, pens/pencils, assorted toy pieces, coupons, bandages, tweezers and more. Thing is, that drawer is ALWAYS disorganized.

When we were brainstorming what to do with our wood medicine cabinet, we somehow circled around to “hey, let’s make it into an intentional junk drawer to replace the junky, messy one that everyone seems to have in their house.”

The intentional Junk Drawer has a place for everything you keep in a junk drawer, neatly labeled and stored in an easy to access cabinet.

Before. We found this item at a local thrift store in Tallahassee, FL.

Step 1

First we decided on a color scheme and identified the items we wanted to organize and store in our cabinet. We then gathered our storage containers. Small items like tacks, screws, and push pins found their way into a large pill box. Tall things went into cleaned, painted and labeled cans. Office supplies, which take a lot of space, were put into a good size metal container which can easily be removed and accessed. Our containers were cleaned (with Krud Kutter), painted, and labeled.

Step 2

We removed the mirror, door hinges and cabinet pull. Everything was given a good cleaning and wipe down. We removed the towel bar at the bottom of the cabinet with a miter saw.

Step 3

Door hinges were painted with Rust-oleum metallic titanium silver paint. The small tins were also given the metal paint treatment.

Step 4

The door and cabinet were spray painted with Rust-Oleum’s Robin’s egg spray paint. We also cut three wood Scrabble tile holders to size to cover the scalloped edge and used wood glue to glue them in place.. We used more paint than necessary due to the very windy conditions of the day! We tried to make a spray tent with Anna and Elsa’s help, but the wind kept blowing it over!

Step 5

After everything was dry, the parts were reassembled, a new cabinet pull installed, and the storage components added to the cabinet.

With the Intentional Junk Drawer everything you needs is neatly organized, easy to get to and easy to replace. The metal surface is a great place to hold coupons, lists, and more. The Scrabble tile holder now acts as a ledge to hold a pen or a dry easer maker for the magnetic dry erase board. Magnets were made by hot glueing a couple of large button together to the top of a magnet.

Although our cabinet sits on a table, it can be easy hung by adding a wire to the back or even better, a French cleat.

What would you store in your Intentional Junk Drawer? Let us know in the comments below!

Check out our website for video on how we made this!

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2 of 25 comments

Mother Daughter Projects on May 02, 2016
We took the mirror out and used a piece of galvanized tin so we could use magnets.

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Debra McMenamin on May 02, 2016
Looks Fun and it came out beautiful

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