Today I have a fairly easy DIY craft project for you and you can have them completed in just one afternoon. What’s really nice about this project is that you’ll be upcycling (recycling) old wooden desk drawers or small kitchen cabinet drawers. Once you’ve converted them…you can turn them into wooden shadow boxes to display your treasures on your wall.
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For this project we used 2 small wooden desk drawers that were made out of pine wood. Hubby stripped them, sanded them and then painted them. After the paint was dry, he roughed them up with some sandpaper to give them that shabby chic look. You can remove the knobs or leave them on. I opted to leave them on.
Since I wanted mine turned into curio boxes or shadow boxes I had him cut pine wood to fit inside them to make divided compartments. After a little bit of measuring, sawing and painting…he had my compartments made. Each of our drawers now have 6 cubbie holes or compartments. On the back he added a saw tooth hanger, so that we could hang them up on the wall.
What’s really cool is that you can decide if you want to hang them horizontally or vertically. I opted for horizontal look so that they would look appropriate beside a canvas wall hanging on one of my kitchen walls. To keep them from tilting I added a little piece of double-sided foam sticky tape to the bottom of each one. Once he had them up on the wall and straight…just push the bottom edge down to tack them down firmly into place. This keeps them perfectly straight!
I had a small collection of coastal themed salt & pepper shakers, seashells and other small items to display. Finally got those items out of a cabinet and out for people to see. As the seasons change, I’ll be changing out my treasures and doing seasonal displays inside them. During the holiday & Christmas season I plan on displaying some of my coastal themed ornaments in the cubbie holes.
If you have some old wooden drawers lying around this would be a fun project to do. We’re going to make another set and hang them above a desk in our den. That set will be used to organize and store desk & office supplies. You can use them for all sorts of different things!!!
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This is a very clever way to change an old drawer to something useful. I like the different ways it can be done and the different ways it can be used.
This is a really cute idea! It’s a great way to display a collection in a unique way.
This is such a perfect timely idea. We just got new vanities and I did not want to through the drawers out. We can do this. Thank you.
This is a great way to display treasures. You could probably find drawers at a thrift store.
It is! My daughter is re-painting 3 drawers right now. She’s going to hang them on the wall in the kid’s play room and put their stuffed animals & some of their collectibles on them.
I love these desk drawers and so wished we had some of these. Now I am going to be on the lookout for some of these I love this idea for our country kitchen. I love all of your coastal themed things and I love it when you share your great pictures.
What a fun idea! I love the way they look. Perfect for displaying smaller items.
I like how you reuse items in such a clever and interesting way. These look great on your wall and is such an attractive way to feature your coastal display.