Creating a Faux Drawer Front

Do you ever have those moments where you come up with a solution to a problem that you have and you shake your head wondering why you never thought of it sooner? Well, this project is one of those things. I have a desk in my kitchen that has these open cubby drawers. The desk is our kitchen drop zone. Every home has one. It's the place where you walk in and drop everything. When your drop zone is left unattended, it will gradually take over. I shared on HomeRight.com some simple tips to help you organize your kitchen drop zone.  Part of that organization for me, was figuring out what to do with the open shelving I had. I ended up creating a set of faux drawers that cost me under $5 to make. You may not have the same problem as I did, but my guess is, there is a space that creates visual clutter that could be easily tamed with a faux drawer just like I did.

Speaking of visual clutter, lets take a peek at the before and after of my kitchen drop zone. For all the organizational tips to help you get control, head over to HomeRight.com.  For now, I want you to focus on that little row of cubbies and marvel at my faux drawer solution.

Creating a Faux Drawer Front

So while this before picture is totally embarrassing, it's more embarrassing to tell you that I promise that I did nothing to stage this to make this area look worse. It is an area that had gotten out of hand like all drop zones do if left unattended. Let's focus on that circled area. I can close the doors and not see all the clutter above {which is why it had gotten as bad as it had!}, but I can't close off the small cubbies that are always front and center. I kind of patted myself on the back because I had gotten small organizing bins that fit the area a few years ago, but those didn't really help to tame the visual clutter. What really needed to happy were drawers. But how? I am no woodworker. I couldn't make a drawer from scratch so instead, I needed to come up with a creative solution.

I am cheap, but I don't like cheap looking solutions. I literally rolled this idea around for years. I knew I needed a solution, I just wasn't quite sure what it was. It finally came to me a few weeks ago. Create a faux drawer. I didn't need another storage drawer, I just needed the storage drawer that I did have to be concealed.

I used Balsa wood to make this DIY poster hanger. I was drawn to it because it wasn't super heavy but it still had the look of wood. I found a long strip of it at my local craft store for just a few bucks {or you can purchase it here}. Next, I needed something that would pass as a knob. I didn't want an actual knob since those would be too heavy, so I looked around the wood findings aisle and stumbled on these round head plugs.

I measured the cubby drawer and cut my four drawer fronts. I was able to cut them with a retractable razor knife {this one is my favorite and has lasted forever!}. No power tools needed. I used hot glue to attach the knobs to the wood piece. 

I used black spray paint {it only took one coat} and when it dried, I attached my faux drawer front to my plastic storage bin using hot glue. 

Flimsy wood, pegs instead of knobs, hot glue...I know what you are thinking. These drawer fronts aren't going to hold up. I would totally agree with you IF I were talking about a drawer that I used often. These are more decorative and the bins behind hold items we don't need to access often.  If they do pull off, a quick blast with another string of hot glue and I'm back in business!

While I wouldn't recommend this solution for a heavily used area, it worked at solving the simple solution of covering up the visual clutter. Maybe you have something like it that you want to cover up. If you do, I want to see it! Think outside the box.
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