I’m kind of a neat freak. But buying organizers for every drawer and cabinet in the house can start to add up and get pricey. So, when I was trying to figure out what to do with the leftover wood from the DIY custom door I did a few weeks ago, I thought of the idea for DIY wooden drawer dividers for my kitchen.
Our kitchen drawers have been a disaster of a mess. We have old drawers that were made by the previous owners and aren’t on drawer rails. So, they’re hard to pull out and push back in and all the contents go flying around in the process.
I’ve purchased a few of those plastic dividers in the past, but even those don’t fit just right and actually make us lose space.
I needed a better solution. So, I decided to attempt making custom DIY wooden drawer dividers.
Here’s what you need:
- Wooden boards (How much and what type will depend on what you want- I’ll discuss that below)
- Wood Glue
- Miter Saw or Circular Saw (Miter saw is ideal, but I’ll discuss how to do it with a circular saw)
- Tape Measure
- 5/8-inch Nails
- Hammer
- Paper and Pencil
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DIY Wooden Drawer Dividers
Start this project by collecting all the materials you need.
If you have scrap wood that you’re using, like me, then great! But if you need to buy wooden boards, I suggest doing steps one and two before buying wood so you know how much wood to get.
The amount of wood you’ll need will depend on how many drawers you want to do, the size of your drawers and the design of your dividers.
I used .25” X 3.5” X 48” Poplar wood because that’s what I had on hand. This size is good for deep sections and allows me to put more in each section. However, for eye-appealing purposes, I probably would’ve chosen .25″ X 2.5″ X 48″ Poplar Wood. That’s just a personal preference, but pick a board that works best for you!
Step One
Empty out the drawers and organize each item where you want them in your drawers pretending there are already dividers in there.
My goal was to get three drawers down to two with organizing, so it still looked a little chaotic after I placed everything where I wanted it.
Step Two
Now that you have everything where you want it, use a tape measure to figure out what size boards you’ll need for the dividers by measuring each section.
You’ll need to make sure that you have at least one board touching every side of your drawer so that your dividers don’t slide around in your drawer.
Make sure to draw out your design and measurements. This will be your saving grace and you will use it throughout the entire project.
This is my rough sketch. It was something I quickly jotted down, but it did the trick.
Notice at the bottom of each drawer design, I wrote the total amount of inches needed for each drawer. This was to make sure I had enough wood for the project. Use these projections as a guide when buying the wood.
Step Three
Using your sketched guide, measure each section of the dividers on your wooden boards.
Step Four
Cut your sections. Ideally, you’ll want a miter saw for this. I only have a circular saw, so that’s what I used. However, it’s more challenging to get a straight and accurate cut with the circular saw. I made it work, but it wasn’t ideal.
If you don’t have access to any kind of saw, The Home Depot (or maybe even your local hardware store) does make cuts in their store.
Always do what you can for each project. You may not have the tools you need, but there are always ways to make things work or improvise.
Step Five
Once your pieces are cut, do your best to place them in the drawers where you plan for them to be. Then, mark where each board touches another so you know where to glue the pieces together after you remove them from the drawer again.
You can also measure these sections out, but I found it easier to just mark each board this way.
Step Six
Here’s where we’ll start putting it all together!
Remove two boards that touch each other leaving the others in their spots. When picking what boards to begin with, start from the inside and work your way out. It’s challenging to nail an inside piece when the outside pieces are already attached. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.
Add a little wood glue to the end of the board that is touching the other connecting board. Then, attach it to the other board connecting it to the spot you marked. Hold pressure on the board for about a minute before nailing them together.
Nailing the pieces together can be a little challenging. The boards are thin so it’s difficult to balance them and nail in the nails. Find a good surface to use or find someone to hold the boards while you hammer in your nails.
Make sure the nails you use are small. I used 5/8-inch nails. The smallest ones I could find. If the nails are too large, they’re likely to break the thin wood and they’re more challenging to get in.
Since you’re already using wood glue and there’s not a lot of pressure going on these dividers, you’re safe to use small nails and not worry about your dividers falling apart.
If you don’t want to nail your pieces together, use wood glue to connect all the pieces and add clamps onto the dividers to hold the pieces together. Allow the dividers to remain in the clamps over night. (This way will not be quite as durable.)
Continue gluing and nailing all the pieces together until you have one large divider to place inside the drawer.
Step Seven
Place the dividers in your drawer and put everything back.
Congratulations! You just made your very own custom DIY wooden drawer dividers!
Before:
After: (I was able to reduce it to two drawers!)
Conclusion
Having things organized is a huge stress reliever for me. I hate chaos and love order. Making these custom DIY wooden drawer dividers brought so much peace to my mind and organization to our kitchen.
Because of this organizational DIY, I freed up an entire drawer in my kitchen! Hang tight while I have a dance party in my organized kitchen…
These DIY wooden drawer dividers make it so much easier for me to find what I need and each drawer is so esthetically pleasing. I’m no longer rushing to stop a guest from volunteering to grab something out of these drawers in fear that they’ll see my chaotic mess.
Mission accomplished.
