Home: Craft Drawer

The project I'm sharing today is something that I've been wanting to make for a few years after seeing the idea in an old issue of Homemaker magazine. It's taken me this long to get around to it because the main item on the list of supplies needed was "Old wooden drawer". I don't know about you, but I don't generally have that many old wooden drawers sitting around so knew I'd just have to keep my eye out for one and put the project to the back of my mind until something came along. A little while ago I found just what I was looking for - here it is...

At this point I should say that, while I said in my post about my chest of drawers that I wanted to paint all the furniture, there are some things that I think are too nice to be repainted. Had this drawer still been in its chest with some fellow drawers, I suspect it would have fallen into that category because it is lovely wood. On its own, on the other hand, I decided that most people wouldn't want it so it was fair enough for me to adulterate it a bit, namely by painting it bright pink and putting some legs on it.

This might look like a slightly strange item of furniture, but when I saw the original project in the magazine I instantly thought that it would be great for sitting next to my sofa and holding all of my various crafting projects (knitting, crochet, EPP etc.).

I sanded the drawer down, and then painted it using V33 Easy Ultra Pink Gloss furniture paint. While I'm happy with the colour and finish that I've ended up with, I wouldn't particularly recommend this paint if you're aiming for a strong, solid colour. The coverage really wasn't great and the colour was quite watery - I ended up having to do five coats on the drawer. That's not a problem necessarily, but other furniture paint I've used as given a much better coverage and only needed one or two.

The legs that I've used came from Peter Cook International, and I would happily recommend them! They're just right for this project, and arrived really quickly. I would tell you about attaching the legs, but my Dad helpfully volunteered to take on that job and I'm not actually sure what he did.

The last step for the drawer itself was to line the bottom with some pretty paper. This is some children's wallpaper from Homebase, and is actually the same that I used to line the drawers of my chest of drawers too.

The only problem then was that, in my humble opinion, sofa-based crafts generally need a cup of tea and an occasional sweet treat to accompany them and the craft drawer didn't have any space for them. Thankfully, my parents had an old wooden tray that my Mum had sanded down a while ago, but then hadn't actually got around to painting. I painted it white, and then my Dad attached some dowels to the bottom to help it sit securely in place on top of the drawer. It's now the perfect place for refreshments (or flowers) to sit.

My craft drawer has now been in place next to my sofa for a couple of weeks, and I'm so pleased with it. It means that all of my knitting and crochet projects, and hand sewing supplies, are kept nice and tidy but within easy reach whenever I want to pick one of them up to work on for a while. And it's bright pink - who doesn't love a bit of cheery colour?! If you happen to have an old drawer lying around and lots of craft projects to keep in order, I'd definitely recommend giving this a go!