Part 4 – Closet Island Progress – How To Build Drawers The Easiest Way (Plus, The News You’ve Been Waiting For)
Yesterday, I shared that I had a bit of a setback with my walk-in closet island build when I cut most of the pieces for the drawer boxes too wide. I had completely forgotten to subtract the one inch from my measurements to account for the drawer slides. Thankfully, I decided to check the fit after building the first box and realized my mistake rather than building all of the drawer boxes before realizing I had made them the wrong size. But that ended up being a blessing in disguise because as I was taking that drawer box apart, I realized that I wasn’t using the best method for assembly. Having that night of sleep between realizing that mistake and starting on the project again was good for me. So today, I’m going to show how to build drawers the easiest way, and the best method for doing that, in my humble opinion.
Note: This is Part 4 of this closet island project. If you missed the previous post, you can find that here: Part 3 – Building My Walk-In Closet Island (And A Pretty Big Setback)
First, I wanted to show you that I made a bit of a design change. I had originally planned on putting four drawers in each section. This was the plan for the side that faces the hanging clothes side of the closet…
And then on the side that faces the jewelry/mirror side of the closet, I planned for this configuration, with four drawers on the left side and cabinets on the right side.
But as I started figuring the measurements for the drawers with each section having four drawers in it, I realized that the depth of those drawers wouldn’t really be practical for a closet. It would have been great for a kitchen or my studio, but in my closet, I needed deeper drawers. I need a place where I can store clothing items that I don’t hang, and that includes stacks of paint- and caulk-covered jeans, hoodies, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. In other words, all of the clothes I wear each day to work in. I have a lot of them, and stacks of jeans, hoodies, and sweatshirts won’t fit well in shallow drawers.
So I decided to make the two sections on the hanging clothes side of the closet deeper and only have three drawers in each section. The boxes themselves are 8.5 inches high, but there will be more space once the drawer front goes on. The drawer fronts on these will be about 9.25 inches high. Obviously, drawer boxes don’t sit right on top of each other in a dresser or cabinet. Here’s what those drawer boxes look like…
And here’s what they look like in the section that will have drawers on both sides. I made them as big as I could while leaving a fraction of an inch between them where the backs meet.
But on the side that faces the jewelry/mirror side of the closet, I decided to keep four drawers. The bottom one is a deep drawer, and the other three are shallower. Obviously, they’re not installed yet, and again, drawer boxes aren’t stacked on each other like that when they’re installed. There will be space between them once they’re installed and the drawer fronts are on.
So let’s get to the process…
How to build drawer boxes the easiest way
First, I highly recommend using staples instead of nails to assemble a drawer box like this. My drawer boxes are made out of 1/2-inch plywood, so I used these 1-inch narrow crown staples. (Please forgive my messy wood filler-covered fingers.)
For those, you need a narrow crown stapler, which looks just like a nail gun. I got this Porter Cable narrow crown staple gun at Home Depot. I generally use it for upholstery projects, but it’s also great for projects like these easy drawer boxes.
As I showed you yesterday, I cut these five pieces for each drawer box. The bottom piece is cut to the finished length and width of the drawer box minus one inch in each direction. So if I want my finished drawer box to be 35″ x 14″, the bottom piece is cut to 34″ x 13″. The front and back pieces are cut to the same width as the as the bottom piece (34″) and the height that I want this drawer box to be (this one is 4.5″). And the sides are cut to the finished size of the drawer box (14″) and the height of the drawer box (4.5″).
I used my table saw to rip the plywood to the correct widths, and then used my miter saw to cut them to the exact lengths I needed.
Assembling these is as easy as stapling the front and back pieces to the bottom piece, and then stapling the ends on. It really can’t get much easier than that. You can see here that I used nine staples to staple the front and back pieces to the bottom piece (the drawer box is obviously turned upside down here). So the advantage of using staples is that those nine staples are pretty much the equivalent of 18 nails. I put them roughly 4.5 inches apart.
Once the front and back were attached to the bottom piece, I attached the ends, stapling that on all three sides.
Here’s a look at it from the bottom. I got a bit aggressive with the sander on this piece. 😀
But you can see that the side pieces extend 1/2″ past the bottom piece on each side to cover the edges of the front and back pieces.
Staples generally go in cleaner than nails, and they don’t have a tendency to bend as they go in and come out the side of the wood like nails often do. But they do sometimes take a chip out of the plywood, as you can see here. But that’s nothing that a bit of wood filler won’t fix.
And that’s it. It really is the easiest type of drawer box to build, and since it’s put together with staples, it very sturdy. I don’t know that I would recommend this very basic type of drawer box for a kitchen or another room that gets a ton of traffic and use each and every day. For those, I would probably recommend another method of assembly. But for something like this dresser, I personally think they work perfectly.
And once it’s assembled, I fill the staple holes on the sides with wood filler, and then sand the whole thing, especially making sure that all of the joints where the pieces come together, as well as the top edges of the drawer box and the corners where they meet, are all sanded smooth.
You can also use iron-on edge banding to cover the top edges of the drawer box to give it a really nice, clean, finished look, which I’ll probably do on these.
On a random note, do y’all remember this wallpaper I designed to go in the studio bathroom? Obviously, I won’t be using it in there now since the plan is to turn that bathroom into a walk-through pantry, so I’m considering using it to either line my drawers or maybe use on the sides of the drawers just for a fun bit of color when the drawers are open.
The colors aren’t perfect for this room. The wallpaper has lots of purple in it and no dark blue. But does it really matter? It won’t show in the room unless I open a drawer, so really, the color is just for fun and only for my enjoyment when I open a drawer.
But now for the news you have all been waiting for. I have friends who are coming over TOMORROW to help me move the washer and dryer into the closet!! WOOOHOOOO!! 🍾🎉🙌 I have been without a dryer since the middle of December, so it will feel like Christmas morning when I finally have that hooked up and usable! But I have a lot of cleaning up to do before they get here, so I better get busy!
More About My Walk-In Closet/Laundry Room
see all walk-in closet/laundry
room diy projects
read all walk-in closet/laundry
room blog posts
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
You’ve made amazing progress! I’m glad to hear you’ll have your washer and dryer hooked up in your new laundry area tomorrow!
I love the idea to use the wallpaper inside the drawers – or, even better, on their sides! It’s such a whimsical thing but it will make you smile every time you open the drawers and that’s totally worth it! The colour palette is close enough that people might not notice they weren’t initially intended together.
as to the moving of washer and dryer – you deserve to finally have them in their designated room and enjoy the ease which you’ve envisioned for quite some time now! Hope everything works as easy as poss!
So glad to hear you are getting the washer and dryer moved and I hope installed tomorrow! You have told us several times how you were managing without them, but as an old lady that uses my washer and dryer two to three times per week, I have been eagerly awaiting that day!!!! Everything is looking so good and I know you can see completion on the horizon!!!
Good idea to use the wallpaper somewhere! I use it all the time to line drawers. It’s so much better than contact paper, and easily replaced if necessary! YIPPEE on the washer/dryer! Be sure to thank those friends very well!
Simple sometimes is the best. I love the drawer set up. I know about those clothes that are only fit for work. When I do get done with them, I have a Viking funeral pyre for them, seems only fitting. Love the wallpaper, I think it works beautifully in there and will help with the clothes. Great job and super news about the washer and dryer, you will feel like a princess for sure now.
Cheers to you and Matt!
I love the idea of using the wallpaper inside the dresser for drawer sides and lining! That will be so fun for you to see. Kinda like an “Easter egg” just for you and those who know!
I’m glad you are getting the washer and dryer in place. If I were you, I would be SO relieved. Enjoy!
If you have extra time (ha ha) could you explain how you set pressures on your air compressor. I can’t get mine to insert the nail into the trim all the way. The back side sticks out a bit and it’s impossible to nail them flush with the trim. This started when I tried to use the biggest gun/longer nails that came with the package bundle.
Can you turn the air pressure up? That’s how I get the nails in when they don’t go.
Betsy is right. It sounds like you need to turn the pressure up. Your compressor should have two gauges. One gauge is for the pressure in the tank, and the other shows the pressure going to the nail gun. I keep the pressure to the nail gun around 90. If I find that they’re not going in enough, I may increase it to 95, and very rarely, I have to turn it up to 100, depending on the project. I never find that I have to set mine over 100.
To get those nails in, you’ll need to use a hammer and a nail punch. They comes different sizes for different sized nail head. If you get a package with three different sizes, you’ll be set. Just choose the one that fits over the nail head, and hammer that stubborn nail in all the way. This is the set I have: https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-1-32-in-2-32-in-3-32-in-Bi-Material-Nail-Set-3-Piece-DWHT58018/203638542
Looking good.
So happy you are getting w/d set up. It will be like Christmas
Love the colorful wallpaper for the drawers. A fun thought
I thought it would be fun to have a long drawer that you can open from either side. Do I mean long or deep? Anyway, one that goes from side to side and is one drawer you can access from one side or the other. If I have all those drawers 9 times out of 10 I would be opening the wrong one.
I had considered that, but it would make the drawer too deep (I think that’s the term 😀 ) for me to stand in front of the wall cabinet and open it all the way. There’s only 36 inches between the island and the wall cabinets, and a full double-sided drawer would be 28 inches. And I’m not that skinny. 😀 So I’d still have to know which side to open it from in order to get what I need.
Interesting about your need for a drawer for the work clothes. Mine are dye clothes. When I was going to week long or more classes, I stored all my dyeing clothes in a big suitcase so I could just finish packing stuff in it and go. At home, I dye and do most everything messy in a muu-muu but those aren’t appropriate for public classes.
I am gathering stuff to build the Rustic Wooden dresser by Ana White. I didn’t even think about using plywood for the drawer box since she lists regular 1 X’s. I have a ton of scraps left-over from building the trim for my new house. Got the idea from a fabulous, talented decorator online & totally stole her idea for my home! Anyway, I have lots of wider boards like 1 x 8s from the windowsills (fat ass cats needed a WIDE windowsill!) and I was planning to use the cutoffs from those. I’m going to look into plywood too now that I see your boxes. I’m eager to see the closet finished!
Woo-hoo, back to having a dryer!! I don’t know how you’ve done without. Between clothes, household linens and towels, and pet stuff, I feel like laundry is never ending.
I love using colorful paper to line drawers. I’ve even painted the insides of white cabinets a bright color just for the pleasure of opening the door and seeing it.
Have fun doing laundry!!!! Using the paper in drawers is a great, fun idea.
I’ve used wallpaper as drawer paper before…perfect, and yes, only you see it as you use your storage…very pretty and makes such good use of leftovers. Great idea! Have fun in your new laundry room area!