Old drawers do not have to end up on the trash pile. Our step-by-step guide shows you how to upcycle old drawers into a chest. We turn many old, different drawers and a new aperture into an original chest of drawers on wheels that will be a feature piece of furniture in your home.
Where to get such drawers, you might ask at the sight of our upcycle new/old furniture. Clothes, cutlery and bathroom cabinets, secretaries and dressers, writing and bedside tables, in them you will find beautiful specimens to use.
But even if such furniture is not in your home, drawers are often available in flea markets as individual items to buy. Simply because the drawers are often still intact when the furniture body has already become grumpy.
Find more great upcycling ideas
The differences make up the appeal
What we wouldn’t recommend otherwise, here it gets method: As many different elements as possible, just three drawers are the same, become a piece of furniture here.
The variety of sizes, shapes, types of wood and fittings creates a structure whose living front never gets boring.
If you have collected enough drawers, you should record their approximate arrangement by means of a sketch. The exact positions are later determined on the cropped aperture.
Steps to upcycle old drawers into a chest
A panel of 8 millimeter shaded plywood later sits behind the aperture. Apply the drawer dimensions and cut them with a saw.
A second Plywood panel, the rear wall, is underlaid to transfer the outlines of the drawer cutouts.
Glue small wooden blocks into the corners of the outlines, where the running strips are later fixed.
Corner strips made of pine, 2 x 2 centimetres thick, serve as running strips. They are glued to the back wall at the corners of the blocks at the right angle.
Place the plate with the cut-outs and attach it to the parallel aligned running strips with two nails each.
As a front panel, an MDF panel, 19 millimeters thick, is provided with the drawer cutouts and mounted on the plywood panel.
The body of the floor, lid and side panels is made of 10 millimetre-thick MDF panels, which are screwed together bluntly.
The visible Surfaces of the chest of drawers are first carefully sanded and painted twice with honey-coloured furniture glaze.
Gerhardt Richter is a writer and a trainer at trade technical colleges, specializing in carpentry, plumbing, mechanics and construction.
