I’m taking off my parenting hat this week and putting on my DIY hat.
Of course these aren’t ‘real’ hats … I’m indoors much of the time and I’m not really a ‘hat person’ anyway. Not sure why I brought it up in the first place now …
So, this DIY project is KIND OF parenting related. I’m sure I’m not the only parent out there who has bought a cheap chest of drawers when faced with an overflow of children’s clothing and no where to put it.
And I’m certain I’m not the only one who has dared put more than the recommended 20kg of weight in those drawers only to have the bottoms fall out of them … saggy drawers, not a good look.
So after much head-scratching (which wouldn’t have been easy if I was a ‘hat person’) I came up with a way to fix the broken drawers in our cheap furniture.
Here’s how we did it (and it is working so far!)
You’ll need: a drill, screws, two metal braces/brackets per drawer, a length of timber (and a saw if you can’t get it cut to size in the hardware shop).
STEP ONE
Measure the width of the drawer and cut a piece of timber to fit underneath. Make sure that the timber isn’t higher than the lowest part of the drawer – you don’t want it stopping the drawer fitting back in its place.
STEP TWO
Turn the drawer on its side and place the timber underneath the drawer and the brackets on the inside of the drawer. You will need four hands – or another person – to help you with this.
STEP THREE
Drill the brace from the inside of the drawer down into the timber beneath. Make sure you get advice on the best screws to use. Make sure you’ve measured the width of the front of the drawer as you don’t want the screws to go right through the timber and ruin the front of the drawers. Most drawers are 15mm thick at the front but one set we had were smaller than this so we need 12mm screws.
STEP FOUR
Put your kids clothes back in and enjoy the fact that your drawers now close properly and don’t fall to pieces every time you open them.
Hope this helps fix any broken drawers you have at your house!
Updated May 2014