What if I told you that you could DIY a custom drawer organizer in one day? Well, you’ve come to the right place! I am here to help you turn your kitchen utensil drawer from a cluttered mess to the most organized drawer in your house. Let’s get started!
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read the full disclosure. This was not my original idea. I found my inspiration on Kevin & Amanda via Pinterest.
Your kitchen utensil drawer is a cluttered mess. You wouldn’t be reading this if it wasn’t, right?
The Problem:
- you either have no organizational system in place and you just toss the utensils on top of one another creating a tangled mess or,
- you have an organizer that just isn’t meeting your needs and there is far too much wasted space or not near enough space for all your utensils.
The latter was my problem. Here’s a look at our kitchen drawer’s before. The drawer’s are extra wide, providing great storage. However, the existing pre-made organizers were way too small! Can you see all the wasted space at the back? And there’s no organization on the right.
The Solution:
- A custom DIY drawer organizer that will fit allll your utensils exactly as you wish!
Here’s a look at our kitchen drawer’s after. Seriously, look at that! Like I said the best looking and most organized drawer in the house. The custom drawer organizer provides each utensil a specific home within the drawer and the drawer liner adds some style.
Let’s get you started on a transformation of your own!
DIY CUSTOM DRAWER ORGANIZER TUTORIAL
MATERIALS NEEDED:
- Pencil
- Paper
- Tape Measure
- Lumber (1/4” x 3 x 2 poplar)
- No More Nails Adhesive
- Mitre Saw (this is what I used, but you could use what you have on hand or take your measurements to Lowes and have them cut it for you)
- Paint (optional)
- Drawer Liner (optional)
STEPS:
1. Remove all utensils from your drawers and sort into like objects (forks, knives, spoons, measuring cups, spatulas, whisks, etc).
2. Once you are finished sorting, place the grouped items back into the drawer. Use temporary dividers to help you visualize how you want to construct your custom drawer organizer. You can see in the photo below that I used lego & pens as my temporary dividers.
3. Grab your paper and pencil. Sketch out your custom drawer organizer, as I did below. This sketch acts as a great reference for the following steps, especially if there’s a chance you may get sidetracked by a tiny human 😉
4. Grab your tape measure. Measure the dimensions of your drawer, as well as the length of each divider and record the measurements on your sketch.
5. Cut your lumber to size.
6. Replace the temporary dividers (aka. Lego), with the freshly cut boards to ensure the boards fit inside the drawer.
7. Once you have confirmed the boards fit inside the drawer, go ahead and paint the boards.
8. Using the glue, assemble the drawer organizer. Depending on your design, you might need to recruit an extra set of hands to help with this step. I sure did!
9. As you are waiting for the glue to set, now is a good time to install your drawer liner.
10. Once the glue has dried, place your brand new custom drawer organizer inside the drawer and show your utensils their new home.
There you have it! Beautiful and functional custom drawer organizers that are totally removable. Now when you want to clean your drawers, you remove the utensils and lift out your organizer. Just. Like. That. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
If you made your own custom drawer organizer, I would love to see it! Be sure to tag me on Instagram and Facebook so I can find and admire your work.
Oh, and if you want to save this tutorial for later, be sure to pin it!
