fri-DIY: repurposed desk drawers

you know the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure". well around our house - we have taken that saying to heart! :) i drive alleyways scoping out the latest finds! of course, that requires a bit of creativity.

take these desk drawers for example:

pretty hideous as is. wade and i happened upon the MOTHERLOAD of broken down desks last sunday afternoon. we passed them up - but all day long i kept coming up with new ways we could use old desk drawers. while i was at bible study later that evening, my fantastic husband took a walk and grabbed a couple of the drawers (and just in time - might i add - it began to rain w/in the hour.)

the plan - more drawer space for our little kitchen! :)

1 // i removed the wooden knobs from each drawer. then sanded the front panel of each drawer and washed them to remove the sawdust. i also cleaned out the inside of the drawers - who knows what was stored in them before.

2 // in a continued effort to add more color to our bland apartment (yes - excluding our TEAL kitchen table) ... i chose a couple of colors that matched our living room rug - a green and an orange.

then i painted the front panel of each drawer a different color:

3 // once painted, the drawers were a bit too new not to mention bright! ... so i decided to weather them a bit. i hand sanded the edges and the fronts. {speaking of bright - how about that nail polish. yikes.}

4 // having never weathered anything before, i decided to get creative and take my weathering one step further. i used our ebony from our bookshelves and desk (which i still haven't shared!) to stain over the paint.

a light coat and a quick wipe clean ...

the result: a nice weathered almost burned effect. (NOTE: the stain was probably a bit darker than i really wanted to go ... but the drawers were free and so were my supplies!)

5 // finally i added the perfect finishing touch ... a few antique knobs swiped from an old water warped hutch that my great aunt was about to throw in her burn pile:

voila!

now our potatoes and onions no longer are housed in a paper bag in the corner. :)

wade and i have another trash to treasure DIY planned for the weekend. it's even more fun than this one. or at least it is in my mind. get excited!