sizing up your drawers.

Published on by Quandie

Back in March when our governor issued a Stay at Home order, I decided to forgo making Craigslist or other online purchases for a while.  Of course, back at the beginning we all thought that was going to last just a few weeks.  Now, here we are in week 9 and although the official order has loosened up a bit, things are most definitely not back to ‘normal’.  Recently our State Fair (which takes place in late August) was canceled, and that has led me to realize that there very likely won’t be any neighborhood garage sales this summer.

Sure, there will be a handful of sales here and there, but I don’t think many local governing bodies will want to publicly endorse large gatherings by organizing a neighborhood sale.  And usually there are some pretty huge turnouts for those sales.

I would admit that I’m in mourning over the loss of my beloved neighborhood garage sales, but of course I know that in the scheme of things that are important in this world, this is pretty insignificant.

So instead, I’m continuing to dig deep looking for projects to share with you guys.  I suppose I should face facts at this point and admit that I may have a few more piles of stuff in my carriage house than I realized because I seem to keep hauling things out of there to ‘improve’.

This past weekend I pulled out two orphaned drawers …

For the life of me, I couldn’t remember which piece of furniture these came from so I did a little searching in my blog history only to discover that I purchased a pile of random drawers at a garage sale back in 2016.

Good grief, that means these have been sitting around out in the carriage house for almost 4 years!  Yikes!

I started out by asking my handyman, Ken, to cut them down to half their original size … depth-wise.

He basically removes the back, cuts down the sides and bottom, and then reassembles with the back.  For someone with the proper tools and skill (Ken, not me), this is fairly simple.  He had them finished and back to me in an afternoon.

Next I sanded them lightly, cleaned them up with a damp rag and then painted one in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy (top) and one in their French Linen (bottom).

For some reason the hardware would not come off easily.  I’m not sure if it had been glued in place somehow or what, but I decided that rather than fight with it, I’d just paint over it.

The Sawmill Gravy drawer was missing its keyhole escutcheon so I added an unpainted one from my stash at the end.

I had some fun dressing each of these up with some scraps of transfers leftover from previous projects.

The French Linen drawer has a section of the Cosmic Roses transfer that was left over from the bed I painted back in March.

I pulled out the Paris Valley and the Classic Vintage Labels transfers to use on the Sawmill Gravy drawer.  I simply cut out each element I wanted to use individually and then placed them on the drawer where I wanted them.

I just love playing around with transfers in this way, and I especially love being able to use up leftover scraps whether it be transfers or drawers.

Now, at this point you might be thinking to yourself ‘well, that’s all well and good, but what in the world are you going to do with a re-sized drawer?’

I have a few ideas.

First up, use it as a planter box for a row of faux topiaries, these are from IKEA.

Or how about using it to corral your collection of blue canning jars.

Fill it up with a bunch of ironstone …

or some old books …

Or maybe just fill it up with some of your favorite flowers.

Although I took that photo outside, I should clarify that this drawer would not really hold up well outside.  Mainly because it’s made of wood, the inside is not sealed at all and I used wax as the topcoat which isn’t suitable for outdoor items.

However, you could use it this way on a covered porch.  You would need to keep the plants in liner pots and take them out to water them though.

Do you have any ideas for using a re-sized drawer?  Be sure to let me know in a comment!

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and to re.design with prima for providing the products used for today’s projects.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

22 thoughts on “sizing up your drawers.”

  1. These are both awesome. But that French Linen with the Cosmic Roses is really gorgeous. The blue floral against the taupe-y/grayish background just makes my heart flutter. Of course, blue florals have always tripped my trigger, so to speak. And this color combination is perfection. Wish I lived near by. 😍

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    1. I have yet to see a color that Cosmic Roses doesn’t look amazing on! And I’ve seen it on quite a few, yellow, varying shades of blue, green, grey, white … it’s definitely a versatile one!

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  3. I’m also mourning the loss of neighborhood and church sales this year. But it definitely will give us both the opportunity to get to those “some day” projects, right?
    I absolutely love the drawers – you never disappoint!

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  4. Love the drawers! My favorite is the ironstone filled one – looks fantastic. Although I love the flowered one as well. I am definitely enjoying all my flowers even more this year than normal as we are doing alot of “home time”. We are homebodies anyway, but it IS putting a crimp in my antique booth stocking!

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  5. These are beautiful, I can think of a couple places in my house where I’d attach them to a wall. I bet it’s kind of fun digging through the Carriage House and finding these set-aside projects. Cleansing! You’ll have so much room by fall!

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  6. Suzy just gave you the repurpose I was going for. I’ve seen them hung on walls in the kitchen and bathroom to hold essentials. I love both of them and as usual Ken does an amazing job doing the reworking so you can make them useful. I’m now living in rural Missouri and estate sales are coming back, so I’m getting smalls and furniture again. The thrift stores I used to frequent are not getting much new out on the shelves so I’m not returning to thrift shopping for a while. I wear a mask and keep hand sanitizer handy when I do go out.

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  8. These are so pretty. My favorite is the one full of flowers. Oh to have a covered porch. Love the idea of hanging them on the wall too! Haven’t checked for garage sales in my area but most things are starting to get back to normal. Except the weather – too much rain! My delphiniums and geraniums are drowning.

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    1. We’ve had a fair amount of rain as well, which is making everything super green and lush. I hope your delphiniums make it. They’ve always been a favorite flower of mine, but I’ve never gotten the hang of growing them. I’ve tried many times, and they never seem to survive the winter here.

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  9. I love your res sized drawers. I really liked the topiary one. The resized draw ( which I bought in Minnesota at Junk Bonanza) I use in my dressing room to hold my hair dryer and curling iron. My husband attached it the wall. It is great for not worrying about a hot curling iron or dryer. Yours are much more glamorous!
    Smiles, Alice

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    1. Thanks so much Alice! There are always lots of great items to be found at Junk Bonanza 🙂 I wonder if they’ll be able to hold their sale in September? So far it looks like they are planning on it.

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      1. It was a lucky happenstance. It was my husband’s 50th high school reunion. So I went with him and he went with me! 😊 I’m sorry I’m not closer. It is a fun show!
        Smiles, Alice

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  10. You always have the best ideas. These drawers are so pretty and the way you staged (used) them are very cool. Thank you for all of your inspirational ideas. I have gone to Goodwill once since they opened back up but was very disappointed. I still have a bunch of thing to work on. Do you every refurbish trays? I have a stack of trays I need to paint and decorate and my creativeness comes nothing close to yours.
    Thank you for everything.

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  11. Once again I love your drawers, but wanted to let you know I have one in oak – not painted that I put on an end table, with the backside down, and the opening facing me, or should I say I’m sitting in my chair and looking into the drawer. It is standing up so to speak, and the front of the drawer is forming a shelf for a few things, and I’ve put books & magazine inside it while on my end table….confusing? I love it though…..just an idea. Maybe painting the inside if you displayed something inside of it….

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