In this post, I’m going to show you how I built a two tier storage drawer inside my daughters super deep drawers.
Two tier storage drawer hack!
When I was building my daughters built-closet storage system, I was working with a thrifted dresser. The nice thing about old dressers is that they are sturdy! They are usually made of solid wood or high quality material (compared to the particle board of today’s furniture) but there are usually downsides like wood slides and having insanely deep drawers.
Deep drawers, especially in a child’s room, might as well be a black pit. Things get piled on top and years later your digging out clothes from the bottom that you forgot you even had and your kid doesn’t fit in anymore.
I knew right away that I didn’t want that deep drawer, but I also didn’t want to try to convert it into two separate drawers so I “hacked” the drawer to create two levels of storage!
Inspiration and material
When researching solutions, I came across a rev-a-shelf tiered storage drawer that would be perfect!
Except for the price tag and the size of it! At over $200 ON SALE, it was incredibly tiny and looked to be the size of a small kitchen or bathroom vanity drawer. Not a dresser drawer size.
So, I decided to DIY it!
Want to save this tutorial for later? Be sure to pin it to your favorite pinterest board!
Essentially, what I needed to do was notch out the back of the existing drawer and build an inner drawer. I’d attach drawer slides so that the inner drawer could slide backwards through the notch.
I used 1/2 inch MDF for the inner drawer and started by cutting all my pieces.
To determine the size of the inner drawer, I simply measured the interior width of larger drawer and subtracted how much space would be taken up by the two drawer slides.
I measured the depth of the drawer and took into account how big my material was to come up with a depth I thought would work well.
Assembling the inner drawer
I used pocket holes to attach the front piece but attached the back piece with screws. To make pocket holes, I use this kreg jig system but I have also used this less expensive version in the past as well, you just need a good clamp to be able to use it. I added wood glue at every corner. The bottom was attached with wood glue and screws. A good set of corner clamps make projects like this so much easier!!
Because I also assembled the larger drawer (only the drawer front was from the original dresser) I made sure the back piece was about half the size of the depth of the drawer. If you are working with. an existing drawer, you could use a jigsaw or multi-tool to notch out the back. For a look at my favorite tools, check out my DIY recommendations here!
Attaching the drawer slides
Once the inner drawer is constructed and the back of the drawer is adjusted, all that’s left is to attach the slides.
You’ll want to make sure that it will allow the inner drawer to slide backwards. That way, when the main drawer is pulled out, the inner drawer can slide back into the space of the dresser.
This part is fairly simply as long as you measure and install the slides level on both the main drawer and inner drawer.
Here’s a look at how the two tier drawer hack works with the drawer outside the dresser:
Here’s a look at how it works inside the dresser:
Storage hack for deep drawers
I have to say, we’ve lived with this for awhile now and this drawer is still one of my favorite parts of the entire closet build! I can always find the shirts I need.
You could get fancy and organize it with drawer organizers but I keep it simple and use the top tier for short sleeve shirts and the bottom for long sleeve shirts.
If you want to check out my post about how I build the closet system using a thrifted dresser, click here!
Also, be sure to check out my Instagram! I have the whole build saved to a highlight titled “Closet 💖“ – not only will you find this project, but all of my other projects align with daily DIY and tips in stories!
