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Simple Quick Dresser Drawer Fix
Craftiness

Simple Quick Dresser Drawer Fix

Kyra

•5 minutes to read

A couple of years ago I noticed the bottom of Zoey’s dresser drawers were falling out from the weight of her clothing. Ada, Zoey, and I got to work fixing the dresser drawers while I stopped to take the odd photo and then forgot to share it. About a year later I noticed a different drawer base bowing with it’s weight so once again we fixed it with a hot glue gun. This is such a simple fix so I had to share as it’s withheld the weight of Zoey’s clothing for quite some time and when or if the glue finally lets go you can easily glue it again. I hope it helps you out.

Pinterest image to pin. Top of the image shows two pictures of the broken drawers. Middle shows the title of the blog post. Bottom shows three images of the fixed drawers and a reference to this website to learn more.

UPDATE: This worked for a while but I did have to update a drawer later on. That time around I upcycled some cardboard to help hold the drawer bottom up. If you're interested in the update you can find it here.

The first drawer had the bottom bow down out the drawer. This wasn’t too bad as the sides were still connected and it was caught before it got worse. For this one I fixed it by flipping the drawer over, plugged in my trusty hot glue gun, pressed down on the center of the drawer base so it’s flat and lined up with the groove in the dresser drawer framework, and glued it in place. A hot glue gun dries quickly so you don’t have to hold it in place for too long. I did notice that if you go over a space that was already glued the heat from the new glue can melt the old glue so I was careful to keep a hand on the base to keep it in place the entire time I glued just in case it popped up again.

Zoey’s dresser drawer is upside down on the kitchen table. From this vantage point you can see the center of the drawer base sticking up (slanted like a hill) with an empty space under it at it’s peak.
First I moved the drawer to the kitchen were the plugged in glue gun can easily reach and placed it upside down on the table.
Closeup of the center of the upside down drawer. You can see my fingers (to the right) holding down the drawer base. Since the base is shoved into place you can see the groove where the drawer base used to sit inside.
I then pushed the bowed drawer down so it’s flat and you can see the groove right beside it (at the bottom here) where it used to sit. I got Zoey to help hold it down for me so we could fix her dresser drawer together.
With Zoey’s little hand in the top holding down the drawer base you can see the gluing happening. The bottom of the picture shows the glued section of the drawer and my glue gun posed above it.
I then took my heated glue gun and glued along the edge of the drawer base offering a new lip for the base to sit on alongside it’s adhesive ability. I glued enough to keep it in place before taking this quick photo and then adding more glue to be sure it holds.
Closeup of the bottom of the dresser drawer. The bottom of the picture shows the glue holding the drawer base in the frame. The top of the picture shows Zoey’s hand holding the drawer base in place.
Zoey held the drawer base down as the glue cooled… but by then it was pretty secure already and it was more for her to help than anything else.

The next dresser drawer was a bit more of an issue; although still really simple to fix. The top drawer’s base was only held in on the one side leaving the other side and back completely disconnected. This meant the open corner had fallen out of the drawer and was resting on the clothing in the drawer below it. I only discovered this when both drawers were open at the same time and Zoey, and then me, had trouble closing the top drawer as the back of the drawer below it was blocking it. At that point I took out all of her clothing out of the drawer to discover this issue. Once discovered I pulled it out, flipped it upside down, and went to grab my glue gun for a quick fix. After my glue gun heated up I pressed the drawer base back into place and then glued it so it couldn’t shift. I made sure the glue attached to the framework, bottom of the drawer, and extended out a bit to act like a ledge for the drawer bottom. To be extra careful I glued down all three sides only leaving the front alone.

Dresser drawer emptied and pulled out from the dresser. You can see the drawer bottom’s corner completely fallen into the clothing below.
The state of the dresser drawer is more obvious once all the stuff in the drawer was emptied out.
Closeup of the bottom of the dresser drawer showing the glue holding the base inside the drawer. You can see some of Ada in the background.
After flipping the drawer over and heating the glue gun I pressed the base into place and glued it down.
Overhead view of part of the bottom of the dresser drawer showing the glue holding it together.
Overhead view of the same glue over two of the drawer’s sides.

I truly didn’t think it would last as long as it did. Since I was writing this I went and checked her dresser drawers and found only the one drawer has since released again. It wasn’t too troublesome yet so I don’t know how long it would’ve taken to discover if I wasn’t posting this. I easily pulled the drawer out, glued it down, and we’re good to go for another year or more again.

Underside of the drawer. The edge shows the new and old glue along with where you can see the paper peeled away from the wood from, probably, when the old glue released it's hold.
The peeled paper lining where the old glue was missing makes me wonder if the paper was the weak point and it may be even stronger and last longer this time around.

I can’t believe the glue gun hack, which was so simple to use, has lasted so long. I love that I was able to fix the dresser drawer as soon as I noticed it was truly broken and didn’t even have to leave the house or order something to do it. I hope this can help you out if you’re discovering a similar issue. If it does help you I’d love to hear about it in the comments below, on my Facebook page, or through Instagram. I hope your day is looking up now.

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Craftiness Clothing Fix Organization Craft Hot Glue Gun

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