A five dollar cabinet, a curbside door and somebody’s broken dresser walk into a garage. That is honestly the whole premise of these 19 DIY furniture hacks, and the before photos are the best part. You will find a garage sale cabinet rolled into a kitchen island with the bins hidden behind tilt out doors, a crib end panel rebuilt as a plate rack, a desk sawn in half to make two matching nightstands, an old door hung flat on the wall with family photos behind every pane, and two cube bookcases laid on their sides as bench seating. Some need nothing but spray paint and an afternoon. Others want a circular saw, a router and a patient weekend. All of them start with a piece somebody else gave up on.
Table of Contents
- Cool DIY Furniture Makeover Ideas
- 1. DIY Kitchen Stand From Old Cabinet
- 2. DIY Headboard From Door
- 3. Foot Rest from Old Drawers
- 4. Ladder Towel Rack
- 5. Wooden Stool Into a Wrapping Paper and Craft Organizer
- 6. Old Kitchen Chairs Hack
- 7. Unused Old Dresser Turned Bench
- 8. An Old Door into A Life Story
- 9. Dresser Flip
- 10. Potting Bench Turned Outdoor Bar
- 11. Step Ladder Side Table
- 12. Night Stands from a Desk
- 13. Padded Bench Out of Bookshelf
- 14. Repurposed Cot
- 15. French Style Bench From Old Chairs
- 16. Dresser into A Vanity
- 17. Old Crib To Plate Holder
- 18. Old Crib Spring to Wall Memo Board
- 19. From Coffee Table to Ottoman
Cool DIY Furniture Makeover Ideas
1. DIY Kitchen Stand From Old Cabinet
Two nearly identical garage sale cabinets cost five dollars each, which is less than the lumber to build one from scratch. The shelving that came out of this one was rebuilt into a narrow cubby that fills the dead space between two garbage cans, and the dinged exterior was clad in leftover paneling instead of being sanded smooth. Bulky trim went on next, using primed 1×3 and 1×2 finger board, then castors so the whole island can be wheeled out of a small kitchen. A single cleat screwed inside each door catches the lip of the can, and a short chain stops the door swinging too far.
Get the full tutorial at Sawdust 2 Stitches.
2. DIY Headboard From Door
A solid wood door spotted curbside on a date night became a headboard that reads as furniture store joinery rather than salvage. The honest part of this build is the stripping: two coats of paint over varnish came off with a really thick coat of chemical stripper, then sanding from sixty grit up to one hundred and twenty. Crown molding on a 1×4 frames the top edge, glued and nailed and then screwed so the board stays straight. The knocker hole gets filled with putty, the knob hole is left because the mattress hides it, and the whole panel is sprayed Antique White and distressed.
Get the full tutorial at Infarrantly Creative.
Home Decor Hacks Make For Inexpensive DIY Decor!
3. Foot Rest from Old Drawers
One orphaned drawer from a thrift store or a Habitat ReStore, four lengths of 4×4 and a scrap of plywood is the entire materials list. Glue the legs to the drawer base first and let that dry properly before flipping it and driving three screws into each leg from the inside, which keeps every fastener hidden. The lid is plywood with 2×4 blocks fixed underneath, and those blocks are the detail people skip: they drop inside the drawer walls and stop the padded top sliding off every time someone puts their feet up. Batting, fabric and a staple gun finish it.
Get the full tutorial at Beyond the Picket Fence.
4. Ladder Towel Rack
An old wooden ladder leaned against a bathroom wall holds more towels than a rail and takes up almost no floor area, which is the honest argument for it in a small bathroom. There is no build here at all. The ladder gets cleaned, sometimes painted, and leaned at an angle shallow enough that a loaded towel does not pull it forward. The rest is restraint: two or three towels hung over alternating rungs, nothing on the top rung, and no basket balanced on the steps. Tuck the feet against the baseboard and anchor it to the wall if the floor is tiled and slippery.
Get the full tutorial at Funky Junk Interiors.
5. Wooden Stool Into a Wrapping Paper and Craft Organizer
A thrifted kitchen stool turns upside down into a rolling caddy with fabric pockets slung between its legs. Measure your own stool first, because the cut list follows it: the model here runs 18 inches from under the seat to the bottom rung and 12 inches across at the widest point. Two and a half yards of fabric covers it, or a five dollar twin flat sheet if you would rather not pay quilting shop prices. Twelve pieces sew into four large bags plus two smaller ones, all tied to the rungs with bias tape, and four castors screwed to the seat let the whole thing roll.
Get the full tutorial at 2 Little Hooligans.
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6. Old Kitchen Chairs Hack
Three dining chairs past saving as a set get joined into an entryway bench, so the spindle backs end up doing exactly what they always did, just side by side. The two carver chairs go on the ends with one arm removed from each to open the seat up. Square the frames first, glue the front legs together under C clamps and then sink a few deck screws for strength, slipping scrap wood under the clamps so they cannot dent anything. Pine 1x4s laid across, overhanging an inch at the front and two at the sides, make the seat.
Get the full tutorial at Spoonful of Imagination.
7. Unused Old Dresser Turned Bench
A broken antique dresser loses its top drawers and gains a seat, which is a smarter outcome than scrapping it for firewood. The legs get cut down to seating height first, then a piece of three quarter inch wood is pocket screwed between the legs on each side to make a ledge, and the seat sits on that ledge and is fixed from underneath so no fastener shows. The bottom drawer stays in service as storage. Covington Blue covers the body, the arm rails and the top are stained instead of painted so the grain shows, and glass insert knobs finish it.
Get the full tutorial at Create Inspire Me.
8. An Old Door into A Life Story
A french door with its glass panes intact becomes a wall sized photo frame, which is a far better use of a door than leaning it in a garage for a decade. Clean it, pull the hardware and leave the flaking paint alone, since distressing is the whole look. Photographs go into pockets cut from cardboard to fit each individual pane, and those pockets tape to the back of the door, so no glass comes out and no photo is glued to anything. Mix portrait and landscape between panes rather than filling every one identically, and hang it from studs.
Get the full tutorial at Photog Mommie.
9. Dresser Flip
A forty five dollar thrift store dresser that came with a large mirror, promptly resold for thirty five, ends up as a console that works as a TV stand, a buffet or an entry table. Two bottom drawers come out along with the divider between them, the holes get filled, and new plywood replaces a bowed cardboard back and base. Beadboard wallpaper goes over that new back because it is paintable and it hides the seam. Three coats of homemade chalk paint in a deep red, lightly distressed at the corners, then a stain wiped over the paint, then brushed polyurethane.
Get the full tutorial at Two It Yourself.
10. Potting Bench Turned Outdoor Bar
A gray potting bench with a built in sink costs a fraction of a purpose built outdoor bar and needs almost no work to become one. The sink is the reason it was chosen: filled with ice it is a drinks tub, and a frozen cooler block sat in the base keeps that ice honest through an afternoon in real heat. Everything else is screwed on. A plain towel bar across the front holds linens, a wall mounted bottle opener goes on the side, and a four dollar length of three sided channel trim under the top shelf becomes a hanging rack for stemware.
Get the full tutorial at The Creativity Exchange.
11. Step Ladder Side Table
A paint spattered wooden stepladder leaned against a bedroom wall becomes a tall, narrow shelf unit in the footprint a nightstand cannot fill. Two large hinges at the top fix it to the wall, which is what stops the whole thing walking forward once there are books on it. Scrap boards cut to length rest on the ladder steps and get screwed from underneath so no fastener shows on top. The finish is worth copying: black and brown craft paint mixed unevenly, watered down heavily, brushed on in long strokes and sanded back once dry for a worn, weathered face.
Get the full tutorial at Funky Junk Interiors.
12. Night Stands from a Desk
A ten dollar desk in rough shape gets cut into two matching nightstands, and the low purchase price is what makes the saw feel reasonable. The center drawer comes out first, then two cuts with a circular saw release each drawer stack from the middle section. The finishing detail is the one that separates this from a hack job: the raw cut edges are routed to match the factory edge profile and sanded smooth, so afterwards nobody can pick which edge was original. Wood putty fills the chips, primer and a green paint go on, and the original pulls clean up in mineral spirits overnight.
Get the full tutorial at Sugar Bee Crafts.
13. Padded Bench Out of Bookshelf
Two cube bookcases laid on their sides make an L shaped bench with storage in every cube, for about a hundred dollars of furniture. Home Depot cut the MDF tops to size, one the length of a single unit and one running longer to meet the wall, which is the measurement to get right if the bench turns a corner. Two inch foam was cut to length at the fabric store, then trimmed to width at home by drawing around the MDF and slicing along the line with a serrated knife. Indoor outdoor fabric survives children, and folding it before stapling stops the staples tearing through.
Get the full tutorial at IHeart Organizing.
14. Repurposed Cot
A cot with a drop side turns into a child sized desk with a chalkboard top, and nothing about the conversion is permanent. The base adjusts up to its highest setting first, which buys the legroom underneath. Two thick MDF boards cut to the mattress size and painted with blackboard paint drop straight into the mattress support, and thick board is specified for a reason, because children will climb on it. Storage hangs off the sides on removable and suction hooks, with a repainted five dollar spice rack for craft supplies and an empty cereal box holding paper.
Get the full tutorial at A Little Learning for Two.
15. French Style Bench From Old Chairs
Two chairs with a continuous curved back become one bench with a padded seat, so the finished piece looks French and expensive rather than assembled from parts. Look for chair backs that run in one piece from the top down to the back legs, about sixteen inches high, with a cross piece to screw into. The front legs and seats come off. A hardwood box measuring thirty six by twelve inches joins the two backs, with seven screws at each end, and a smaller box lower down stabilizes the legs. Half inch plywood, batting and dropcloth fabric make the top, fixed with L brackets.
Get the full tutorial at An Oregon Cottage.
16. Dresser into A Vanity
An antique dresser becomes a bathroom vanity with far more storage than the cabinet it replaced, and a drop in sink keeps it affordable because there is no custom countertop involved. Drill a starter hole inside the line, then cut the opening with a jigsaw using the bowl template, and expect to go back in to clear wood beneath the top and inside for the plumbing run. The top drawers are sacrificed to the basin; the bottom drawer, the side drawers and the side doors all keep working. Finish matters here: five coats of oil based satin polyurethane on the top, sanded between coats.
Get the full tutorial at Beneath My Heart.
17. Old Crib To Plate Holder
One end panel from a dismantled crib becomes the back of a wall plate rack, with the turned spindles doing exactly the job a purpose made rack charges for. Some of the spindles get cut out with a jigsaw, deliberately leaving the end ones in place so there are no holes to fill afterwards. A simple box is built to fit the crib end and attached with wood glue and a nail gun, using cheap cull bin lumber at about fifty cents a board, roughly three and a half dollars for the lot. Scrap shoe molding on each shelf front stops plates sliding off.
Get the full tutorial at Someday Crafts.
18. Old Crib Spring to Wall Memo Board
The wire spring base from a crib, repainted and hung flat on a wall, is one of the most useful things to come out of a dismantled cot. The grid does all the work on its own. Photographs clip straight onto the wires with decorated mini clothes pins, so pictures, cards and children’s drawings go up and come down without a single pin hole in the wall. The creator finished hers by cutting strips of brown burlap to frame the outside edges, which softens the bare metal and stops it reading as a leftover bed part.
Get the full tutorial at Craftaholics Anonymous.
19. From Coffee Table to Ottoman
A plain pine coffee table becomes a tufted upholstered ottoman, and the legs it already has are the reason it looks professionally made. Paint or stain those legs before anything else, and cut them down if the table sits too tall for feet. Drill the button holes through the top now, while you can still reach both sides. Two inch high density foam glues down with spray adhesive, with foam strips added on the sides so nobody barks a shin on a hard edge. Batting, then fabric, both stapled underneath, then buttons pulled through with upholstery thread and nailheads spaced an inch apart.
Get the full tutorial at Not So Newlywed McGees.
