Turn a Leftover Broken Drawer Into the Perfect Shelves

A broken drawer that I no longer needed made the perfect unique shelving for my living room. It was easy to break down and saved the old wood from ending up in the landfill.

Broken/leftover drawer

Wood Corbels

Milk Paint

Low-tac painters tape

Level

Drill

Screws

I wanted to make a bespoke tv stand when I was redoing my living room and this old, handmade dresser fit the bill. The top drawer was broken but that didn't matter since I wanted a shelf for electronics and hardware. (see that project here...)

When I was done with turning the lovely old dresser into the TV stand the broken drawer was remaining and the dovetails and wood were just so pretty I couldn't let them go to waste.

I used the bottom of the drawer to create the shelf in the TV stand so that left the sides. The drawer was quite large and the front piece was curved.

The pieces took a little work to get apart because of the hand-cut dovetails but a hammer and a little perseverance did the trick. Once they were apart, they were everything I love… old, broken, and chippy. They were perfect.

Hanging multiple shelves on a wall can be a bit tricky. I find It easiest to always plan out where they will go before you do any drilling. I started by measuring out a piece of painter’s tape the same length as each piece of wood.

The pieces of tape were then easy to move around the wall until I got a look and flow that I liked. If your shelves have corbels, you can even add those in tape to give you an exact copy.

To give my new shelves a little bulk, I added 2 of these inexpensive corbels to each one.

The corbels came unfinished but it was easy to give them a worn, vintage look. I rubbed on some stain and that was all they needed.

Since I was building the shelves from scratch, it was easiest to hang the corbels first and then add the wood. It was so much quicker doing it this way as I didn’t need to worry about getting screws in the exact right spot.

Wanting to tone down the blue paint on the shelves, I gave them a coat of milk paint in a soft green.

To finish the shelves, I laid the wood on top, making sure it was level and spaced evenly, then screwed it to the corbels.

I am so thrilled that I was able to find a use for the broken, leftover drawer. The dovetails were just too special to send them off to the trash.

If you love upcycling items destined for the trash, be sure to pop over to the Recreated Designs blog... breathing new life into old things is definitely my passion.

You can also grab my handy cheat sheet "10 Things to NEVER Pass Up At the Thrift Store" here...