Best Home Tips and Tricks: How to Turn Old Drawers into Wall Storage

How to Turn Old Drawers into Wall Storage

This is sort of an update or an ‘add-on’ to our recent dining buffet update. Well, today I am going to show you

How to Turn Old Drawers into Wall Storage!

Here are the supplies you will need:

Old drawers from a thrifted buffet
White Chalk Paint
Graphic Wrapping Paper
Mod Podge or Decoupage Medium
Wood Shims
Wood Stain Wipes (I’m in love with these from Minwax!)
Furniture Tacks
Nail Gun
Mending Plates
Metal brackets
Palm Sander

Turn old drawers into wall shelves — Turn old drawers into WALL SHELVES with this tutorial

I removed the hardware and the plastic drawer catches and sanded them down with my palm sander. They were the most damaged part of the buffet and the veneer needed to be smoothed quite a bit.

I had a test pot of chalk paint kicking around so that’s what I used. Next, I cut some of this large scale houndstooth wrapping paper to size (But you NEED to check out these gorgeous papers from Paper Source!!) and used some decoupage medium to adhere it to the back of the drawers.

I still had the issue of disguising the yucky pressboard piece. I knew that I’d butt those two ends together (hehehe) to hide most of it, but the edge?! I ended up cutting a piece of wood trim and staining it with Minwax.

I also braced the back with a couple of mending plates. They’ll never sit exactly flush together because, well, they aren’t the exact same size! Old furniture = funny odd measurements sometimes, so the trim and the mending plates just ease those oddities a bit. I kinda like that they still look like exactly what they are.

To hang them up, I decided to use some simple metal brackets.

Et voila! Cute little shelves made from cast-off drawers.

They don’t hold a lot of things, but they don’t really have to. Knowing us, we’ll probably rotate through seasonal decor.

How to reuse old drawers and turn them into shelves

For now, they hold a slew of thrifted items – a wooden horse statue and an old tin of ‘saddle soap’, a giant letter B for our last name, a tiny copper flower pot for a succulent and an old marmalade jar.