How to Repurpose a Highboy Dresser

It's a Wrap

• Salvage those rolls of wrapping paper that tend to get crushed in the back of your closet every year by making a stylish wrapping station. Leave the highboy dresser in its original wood stain or paint the outside a neutral color, and use brighter a paint color for the interior. Replace the shelves in the hutch with dowel rods on which to slide your rolls of wrapping paper. Use the drawers below to store tape, bows, scissors, gift tags, cards and other adornments.

You're So Vain

• Turn your highboy into your personal vanity. Remove the lower drawers so you can comfortably slide your dressing chair under the highboy. Use the upper drawer of the dresser portion to store make-up essentials. Remove the shelves in the hutch of the highboy and adhere a mirror to the back wall. Screw eye-hooks into the doors to hang necklaces and bracelets. Complete your new piece by attaching a track lighting strip to the top. Thread the cord of the lighting track through a hole drilled through the top of the dresser, which may need the aid of an extension cord easily hidden behind your new vanity.

Child's Play

• Gift your resident princess with a dress-up station she can enjoy with her friends for years. Paint the highboy in her favorite color, adding zebra stripe accents. Screw inexpensive door mirrors, found at most hardware or department stores, on each side of the highboy. Hang a dowel rod across the top for costumes and frilly dresses. The drawers provide optimum storage space for costume jewelry, dress-up heels and accessories.

Storage Solutions

• Solve storage issues in your kitchen with a simple-to-make pantry fashioned from your old highboy dresser. Remove the door panels and replace them with chicken wire or fabric. Store canned and dry goods in the hutch component of your highboy, using the drawers to store spices, utensils and linens. Line the bottom drawer with velvet or felt and simple dividers made with strips of cardboard or 1/8-inch thick pieces of plywood to store your stemware. Tweak the design easily by removing the doors completely, adding fabric to the back of the hutch, and use it to showcase your favorite china.