Repurpose A Broken Dresser

I’m known as a fix-it kind of guy, so whenever something falls into disrepair in the neighbourhood, I’m usually the one that gets called. A lot of the time, things can be fixed, but there are those occasions that you can never really fix something back to the standard of what you’d like. In cases like that, it’s time to use your imagination and see what you can do to repurpose the usable parts of the item into something else.



The body of the dresser was made from real wood, and although it also was wobbly, I could see that it could easily be made sturdy again with some glue and screws. I came up with another idea to repurpose that dresser, and one that would be perfect for a little girl. After discussing my idea with my neighbour, she agreed that it would be a great way to make use of a piece of furniture that might otherwise have to go to the dump.

First, I took out all the drawers and then fixed the dresser itself, making sure that the back was on securely to give the dresser stability, and all the corners were glued and screwed back together tightly. 

I saved the best drawer and fixed it to good-as-new with parts from some of the other drawers. Then I fixed the rails for it on the bottom and removed all the other rails from the inside of the dresser. 

I added a piece of wood to sit on top of the drawer, so that the drawer slid in under it. After that, I made a couple of supports close to the top of the dresser and cut an old broom handle to length. When it was all put back together again, I gave everything a couple of coats of paint and my small neighbour then had a brand-new hanging closet that she could reach herself to hang her clothes, plus with the added bonus of a  bottom drawer.

Her mother hung a set of pretty curtains from some of that stretchy curtain cord in the opening to keep it looking tidy and everyone was pretty pleased with the results.