Old Drawer Turns Into...

I love to find new uses for things! I envy those creative enough to look at an object and re-imagine it for a whole new purpose. I had a drawer leftover from a night stand re-do that has been sitting in the garage for a looong time. It has been taunting me, waiting for a purpose. Inspiration struck when Hubby asked me to make a place to store his keys (and whatever else came out of his pockets at the end of the day). So, I ended up with this:

 

I forgot to take a picture of the drawer before, but it was a drawer from this night stand:

First, I painted the drawer black. I wanted it to have a weathered layer look. I also attached some wood to the "back" of the piece to give it stability and so it could possibly hang on the wall. When the black paint was dry, I rubbed some wax in areas that I wanted the black to peek through. Then I painted the whole thing gray. When that paint was dry, I used a razor scraper to scrape off the wax.

I cut some thin cedar wood for a new "top" and some cedar fence board for a door. I stained both in Minwax Jacobean. 

I glued the thin wood to the top, (weighed down with various tools). I also screwed a piece of scrap to the inside for hanging hooks.

Obviously, I stopped taking pictures of my progress on this one, but I added hinges and hardware cloth painted hammered copper to the door. I also added a magnetic latch to the cabinet. 

I attached an old leather belt to the side of the cabinet to give it a "closer" and character.

I added some other details also painted in hammered copper to give it even more character.

Not too shabby for an old drawer!