DIY Dog Bed from a Repurposed Drawer

I made my dog Lucky a dog bed out of old pillow stuffing back in August 2016.  It was among my first DIY blog posts!  That worked great for awhile, but it’s really worn out & smelly now.  Plus, he roots around under it & drags it all over when he decides to get up because it’s still on his back!  It’s time for something less – mobile!  This DIY dog bed is the first of several projects I have planned for the old drawer left behind in my son’s room.  I really like how it turned out & so does Lucky!

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The Drawer

I showed y’all this drawer in my year end post as a DIY project for 2018.  It was my son’s for as long as I can remember & I don’t remember where it came from!  The drawers are hard to push in & pull out, but it’s a wooden piece of furniture.  I plans for the whole thing!

For today’s project, I originally pulled out one of the larger drawers.  Typical 60s to 70s style hardware & wood tone.

It does have dove tail joints, although they’re not that great looking.

This is the bottom slat that’s supposed to help the drawer slide in and out.  One side has broken off, which is why it doesn’t work very well anymore.

My dog did not like the height of this drawer, so I had to use the shorter one on top.  Luckily the slats on the bottom keep everything even & it doesn’t need legs.  He’s having a hard time jumping up on things, so it needs to be lower to the ground.

For the inside, I bought a new pillow so it would be nice & fluffy.  It was just a $4 standard pillow from Wal-Mart.  The blanket was left behind by my son.  Don’t worry, he took plenty blankets with him!  Plus I made him a quilt!  ; )

Time to make it look pretty!

Prepping the Drawer

Once I settled on a drawer, I needed to fix it up a bit.  The first thing to do was remove this lovely deodorant label left behind by my son…. geesh!  I also didn’t like the raised panels on each end.

A quick look at the back & I could see it was only held in place with staples.

I pried the panels off & started hammering out the long staples, when I noticed a crack…

At first I thought I had split the wood, but then I realized the front face of the drawer was made out of two pieces of wood!

That was a good thing, since I could make the front lower & easier for my dog to get into.  The only thing was the side panels were made of strips of wood too!  One side started coming apart, but the other side didn’t.  I thought about just taking it off to, but it had a shorter piece of wood at the top than the other side.  ?!!?!!

I finally decided to staple-stitch the side together.  It’s not the best looking solution, but it will be on the inside & covered by the bedding.  : D

Alright Franken-drawer, it’s time for some paint!

Painting the Drawer

I went ahead and gave the drawer a once over with the sander.  Just to smooth some edges & knock off the glue bits left behind by the panels.

Then I painted the front panel with Deco Art Americana Chalky Finish Paint in Relic.  I dry brushed the side panels because I wanted some of the wood to show through.

Once the gray was dry, I brushed over the front with the same paint in Vintage.

I also dry brushed some on the side panels.  I really like how it looks like worn, painted wood!  When everything was dry, I went over it with some clear wax to seal it.

The holes left from the knobs on either end were not working for me.  Plus, they were open a little at the top & I didn’t want it catching on something, like my dog’s paw!  I grabbed a rope dog toy out of the dogs basket of toys & decided to use it like a tassel to cover up the hole.

Snip, snip, snip right in two!

I unraveled the ends & stapled them along the inside face of the drawer.  Then I cut the ends flush with the bottom.

Ta-da!  A hanging tassel for the dog bed!  I did trim up the ends a bit to keep it from dragging the floor.

For the bedding, I just wrapped the blanket around the pillow & stuffed it into the drawer.  I wanted some of the blanket left un-tucked for Lucky to cuddle under.

Lucky really likes his new bed!

He’s all snuggled up…

And it didn’t take long for him to doze off!

This is much nicer than the old one!  I have plenty ideas about using the other three drawers & the main frame of the drawer, so keep your eyes peeled for more drawer drama!  Ha!  ; D

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