DIY repurpose an old drawer into an American Flag

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

HOW TO REPURPOSE AN OLD DRAWER INTO AN AMERICAN FLAG

Before you pass up on the dusty old drawer that’s sitting on the side of the road you might want to think of all the amazing things you could turn that in to. Years ago my father in law had a huge old drawer sitting under his carport just collecting dirt and debris. I loved it! Even covered in gross beat-up contact paper I could still see the it’s potential of being something beautiful He told me I could take it home and then it sat in the basement collecting even more dust for years. Finally I pulled it out from the depths of the basement over the weekend and told myself I WOULD transform this old drawer this week!

 Affiliate Disclosure. Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, which means that I may earn a small commission if you click on the link or make a purchase using the link. If you make a purchase you will not be charged anything additional.

I really wanted to paint something American on it and after going back and forth in my own head I decided a simple flag would be perfect for this old drawer. I had thought about stenciling a big US map on it or even some lettering but with everything I already have on my plate I decided I should just keep it simple. Besides I don’t have a ton of vinyl and transfer tape to spare since I’m running low and shipments are taking a little longer than normal at the moment. With a little painters tape and a bit of vinyl I was on my way to making a simple rustic American flag.

Here’s what the old drawer looked like before I gave it a full facelift.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

And this is what the old drawer looks like now. I definitely made a few mistakes but overall I’m loving how this rustic flag turned out.

How to repurpose an old dusty drawer into an American flag for your rustic style home decor. DIY farmhouse style 4th of July decor. Paint your own USA flag using your Cricut. Easy distressed wood flag, repuposed decoratoins.

If you are planning on doing a lot of stenciling on wood click here to read this post on how I save money on stenciling film.

How to make your own rustic flag

If you have an old drawer hanging around and collecting dust you can transform it into a rustic looking flag like I did with this one.

Here’s what you’ll need

Helpful tools

ONE-The first thing I had to do was sand it down. This drawer originally came with some gross contact paper attached to it. I had done the majority of taking all of that off when I first got the drawer. I removed the contact paper as much as I could then used the sander to help take off the rest. I started with 60 grit sandpaper on my handheld sander then worked my way up to 120 grit. the contact paper left behind some sticky residue but with a little elbow grease I was able to get all of it off. Then I used a lint free cloth and a vacuum to get off all the dust.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

TWO- Using a dry brush I painted the inside of the drawer white. I used flat white indoor paint for this. When I brushed on the white base I made sure that all four sides didn’t get painted right up to the edge and I made the edges really uneven. I wanted it to look rough.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

THREE- I measured out how big I wanted the blue area on my flag to be. I am not 100% happy with the size of this but it’s there to stay now lol! I taped that square off then started taping off my lines for my red and white stripes. I did this the same way I did this scrap wood 2×4 flag. I didn’t measure out my lines, mainly because I’m not a super precise person. I used the top edge of the drawer as my guide then taped off my stripes using wide painters tape. I did not make a true American flag though I only have 7 stripes total on mine.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

FOUR- Once I had my stripes taped off I painted the exposed stripes red. Then let them dry and painted then with a second coat of red paint. I peeled my tape up while my paint was still wet.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

FIVE- I stenciled the 50 stars on this rustic flag but did it a little differently than a typical stencil. I did what’s called a reverse stencil on this just like I did with this 4th of July leaning porch sign . I used my Cricut and Cricut design space to cut out 50 stars. You can get my free Cricut cut file here. Since my stars were wider than 11.5” I had to cut them out on two separate pieces of stencil material. But it wasn’t bad at all to piece them together. I did have a big OOPS moment when I weeded away a star. Thank goodness for an honest husband who told me it looked good other than missing a star! I was able to paint in the missing star before I had applied the wax, praise the Lord!

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

SIX- Using transfer tape I applied the star stencils to my flag then taped off the stripes. To cut down on paint bleed I sealed them with a thin layer of white paint. After that was dry I painted that part of my flag blue, let dry, then painted another layer of blue. While the paint was still wet I peel up the star stencils and the tape. I did have a little paint bleed but nothing too serious. This is when I added the last star that I missed :/.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.
Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

SEVEN- I used my Ryobi sander to distress my rustic drawer flag. I used 120 grit sandpaper and lightly went over the entire flag then focused on random areas here and there. After I was happy with the distressing I wiped the sawdust off with a lint free cloth.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

EIGHT- If you’ve read any of my other tutorials you probably know LOVE my antiquing wax. I use it for so many of my craft projects and of course used it for this one too. I used a chip brush and lightly applied the dark wax to my flag. If you’ve never used this stuff before please be aware that a little goes a LONG way. I usually dab the end of my brush into the lid then dab off on a cloth. Since I didn’t have a cloth handy for this DIY I used my apron.

Turn an old drawer into a rustic Ameican flag. It doesn't take much to repurose a drawer that's been collecting dust. If you have some paint and a little creativity you can make your own farmhouse style old looking flag for your home decor.

I can’t wait to hang this rustic flag in our living room! We plan to keep it up year round and I know every time we look it we will think of fond memories of my father in la

I hope this post inspires you to give an old drawer a makeover! If you have any questions on this DIY or any of my other tutorials please feel free to ask away:)!

Happy Crafting!

Just starting out using your Cricut? See the top 10 supplies and accessories you need to get started.

2 thoughts on “DIY repurpose an old drawer into an American Flag

    1. Hi Michelle! Thank you <3 !! I’ve had great luck finding old drawers at Habitat for Humanity. If you have one in your area check there. They have great prices too!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *