Upcycled Vintage Sewing Machine Drawers

These Upcycled Vintage Sewing Machine Drawers are a great way to repurpose old antique sewing machine drawers and use them as home decor.

Recently, I found these old sewing machine drawers at a local antique mall.

—> Side note, click HERE to see my tips for antique and thrift store shopping! <—

They were pretty beat up and missing their hardware.

But, the price was right, and I knew I could fix them up, so home with me they came.

I am partnering with the Dixie Belle Paint Company for this post. Supplies were generously provided to me by Dixie Belle, but all ideas and creations are my own.

Upcycled Vintage Sewing Machine Drawers

1. Clean

The first step was to give these old sewing drawers a good cleaning. They had a thick layer of dust and grime on them.

Fortunately, Dixie Belle’s Pristine Clean handled that task quickly.

2. Repair

Next, I needed to repair a couple of areas that were in rough shape.

These drawers are old, and I wanted them to retain their character, but one drawer did have a cracked edge that was in danger of breaking completely off.

It was nothing a little wood glue or Gorilla Glue couldn’t handle though.

I glued, clamped, and allowed to drive overnight, and then I was ready for the next step.

3. Revive

Originally when I bought these, I thought I might paint and distress them in a pretty white color.

But after cleaning up the wood, I decided to try a different approach, and instead pulled out my Big Mama’s Butta.

Doesn’t the name just make you smile?

Using a brush meant for wax, I applied an even layer all over my vintage sewing machine drawer.

Big Mama’s Butta comes scented or unscented. The one I used, Suzanne’s Garden, has a lovely floral fragrance that worked great to cover up the slight musty odor of my sewing drawers.

I allowed the wax to soak into the wood for a couple of minutes and then wiped back the excess with a shop towel.

Just look at the difference between the before and after!

The Big Mama’s Butta revived the wood grain and gave it a lustrous sheen again.

Plus, it smelled so pretty!

I also used Big Mama’s Butta on the inside of my vintage sewing machine drawers to highlight that beautiful wood grain.

4. Embellish

My sewing machine drawers were missing their hardware, but fortunately, I had some beautiful old drawer handles tucked away that I found in my dad’s garage when we cleaned it out last year.

They were the perfect size for these little drawers, so I gave the pulls a good clean with Barkeeper’s Friend to remove all the tarnish and dirt buildup.

Aren’t they amazing?

Interestingly, one of my drawers had a hole for only one piece of hardware, and the other had two holes, so I decided to use an antique drop pull on one drawer, and two antique knobs on the other one.

I like the quirkiness of it.

I added some felt pads to the bottom to protect the surface of where I plan to display them and I was done!

4. Display

I plan to use my antique sewing machine drawers to display some of my vintage collections, but there are so many things you could put in these:

• plants, succulents
• desk supplies
• candles
• books
• seasonal items for a table centerpiece
• vintage stationary, postcards, or recipes
• faux greenery or florals

I love how these drawers turned out, and although I left mine in a more natural state, there are certainly other great things you could do with a set of these old sewing drawers if you wanted to dress them up even more.

Paint, wood appliques, stencils, transfers…. Dixie Belle has so many fun supplies to experiment with!

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