Recently, I’ve been on an organizing kick in my house. I reorganized all my painting supplies in the utility room using HYLLIS steel shelving from IKEA and reorganized my children’s closets using SKUBB clothes organizers from IKEA. But, IKEA doesn’t have every kind of organizer super cheap. Enter Craigslist.I needed something to reorganize all my craft supplies.
I found this little dresser for $40. Not one of my biggest steals, but a decent price for the perfect piece. It was exactly 36″ wide like I needed and had (mostly) clean lines. I saw some potential.
First, I ripped off the waving decorative piece on the bottom. I didn’t care about height, I really just wanted this dresser to sit on the floor. I got to work with my four step painting process. If you don’t know how to paint furniture, please learn now. It’s easy!
This is a snapshot midway through the process. I have the best drop clothes ever!
My little man helping me
I spray painted the drawers all metallic silver because I wanted to do a saying on the drawers. This dresser will live in my craft room, so I created a stencil out of painters tape for the words “You must create.” I felt this will inspire me to open the drawers and create something every time I go into the craft room.
Creating the stencil was easy! I taped an area that resembled the letter over the paint color I wanted the text to be. Then I used an exact-o knife to freehand score the outline of the letter perfectly. Then I pulled away the excess tape!
So here’s the wall where the dresser will go. I threw up shelves here a while back when I made “built ins” for the basement. That lime green is the accent color for the plum down in our basement. Learn about pairing complimentary colors in design here!Anyway, I repositioned the shelves somewhat and added the dresser on the floor below.
These two classy (not) plastic drawers hold all my crafting supplies right now. So you get the picture, under utilized shelves and plastic garbage were the gist of my craft room organization.
Here is what it looks like now…
Did you notice the dresser is shorter? Well, I lopped off the bottom supports. There must have been a time period they made furniture perfectly functional and then just hoisted it up on flimsy planks of wood. Cutting those planks on the side off is exactly what I did to this dresser turned bench a while back.
I think my freehand letters turned out great. I also spray painted the hardware silver so it looked more normal!
Oh, and I painted the sides of the dresser drawers silver, too, for a little added flare.
I love how direct the saying is and how it speaks to me. I feel happiest when being creative. In my life, for my well being, I must create.
This dresser holds all my craft supplies. I used boxes cut to height in the drawers as organizers. I sectioned out my tools in the box to the right and my stamping supplies in the box to the left.
These are all my papers and stickers and photos to go in scrapbooks. Organizing my stickers in a box set on their edge instead of laying flat is so helpful to quickly find what I need!
These shelves are more practical now too, holding almost all my painting supplies. I used little wooden clementine boxes to organize these shelves.
Here’s the dresser makeover before and after!
Published by Melissa Woods
My name is Melissa Woods, homemaker and parent. I am an amateur handy-woman and avid DIY-er. I am an adept painter and deft crafter. I am a finance enthusiast and frugal to the core. View all posts by Melissa Woods
Recently, I’ve been on an organizing kick in my house. I reorganized all my painting supplies in the utility room using HYLLIS steel shelving from IKEA and reorganized my children’s closets using SKUBB clothes organizers from IKEA. But, IKEA doesn’t have every kind of organizer super cheap. Enter Craigslist. I needed something to reorganize all my craft supplies.
