Custom Drawers in an Airstream

I love the idea of open shelves, but we’re just not that organized. I quickly realized that after living in the Airstream for just a couple of weeks. Half done art projects and crafting junk is just not pretty. But building drawers just wasn’t a project that we had time to complete… until now!

George and I are into recycling and using what we’ve got. It’s thrifty and good for the environment. Wins all around. We salvaged some old barn wood from when the barn was damaged in the tornadoes this fall to use to make the front of the drawers. We also had some leftover wood from building out the shelves and our bed in the Airstream. We used that wood for the sides and the bottom of the drawers.

Here’s what the shelves looked like without the drawers:

Pretty, but not very practical.

George went to work by measuring, cutting and drilling the pieces together.

When we got the drawers into the Airstream, we quickly realized that these babies are going to need some drawer handles. So, we cut up one of George’s old belts and used the rough grain side of the belt to create pulls. Pretty cool huh? We could only find short gold screws to attach the leather to the drawer, so we ended up coloring them with a silver Sharpie. Red neck ingenuity at it’s finest, folks.

Did you finish any projects this weekend? I want to hear about them in the comments!

love,
melanie

14 thoughts on “Custom Drawers in an Airstream”

Mallorie February 3, 2014 at 11:34 am

Love Love Love! You guys did an awesome job! How funny, we do have such similar crafting brains!! Loving this inspiration too because Damon is giving up half of the garage and building me my very own work bench! (I am most amazed at your airstream life when I consider giving up our garage! EEK!) I have been hunting for a trashed dresser or otherwise lonely drawers to upcycle into garage storage for one of the shelves in my soon-to-be work space- but so far nothing, so I might end up building from scratch too! My question- Did you spend the extra to install drawer slides on each one- or do they just sit directly on the existing shelf and you lift them out when you want to dig?

lovelibrarianmelanie Post authorFebruary 3, 2014 at 12:21 pm

We didn’t install slides. We didn’t get that fancy. If it was for a kid, I probably would have done so. But I hope George and I are just careful enough to not pull the drawer all the way out!

Roberta February 3, 2014 at 12:16 pm

Pretty cool! We have moved out of CA. to Oregon. Our home has way less space so I have been sorting and trying to figure out what to keep and what to let go . What a chore!

lovelibrarianmelanie Post authorFebruary 3, 2014 at 12:22 pm

I feel ya!

Loura February 3, 2014 at 3:55 pm

Love these! I bet it feels nice to have a place to hide your stuff now.

What do you guys do with your laundry in such a tiny space?

lovelibrarianmelanie Post authorFebruary 3, 2014 at 5:19 pm

Thanks Loura! We actually have a small closet in the bathroom and put out laundry in the bottom of the closet.

amstincan February 3, 2014 at 10:19 pm

Absolutely love the look of these. What a great idea! I would like to do something like this for under both of my sofa storage areas. Thanks for the idea. 🙂