Drawers as shelves

[mel21clc.livejournal.com]

I posted a little while back asking about stuff I should know for my upcoming craft fair. It's next week (starting Thursday and running through Sunday), and I'm sharing a booth with four other crafters (jewelers and artists). Someone here recommended keeping our stuff separate, which after thinking over, I think is a wise idea to help each of us brand our stuff the way we want to. Since my cards and handmade books are generally made out of salvaged paper goods (junk mail, books that are trash-bound), I was planning on using some older items to hold my goods to kind of link the salvaged idea together. I bought an old wooden 7-Up crate with dividers still intact that will let people flip through four sections. I found a vintage glass butter dish with high sides to hold things as well. However, I wanted to have more than that to hold things up for people, since that doesn't seem to let me display things on their own, only in groups.

Enter dumpster diving!

There is an apartment building at the end of my alley that currently has a pile of wooden drawers stacked next to it. While I flirted with the idea of making a shelving unit out of them, as I've seen done elsewhere, I know I don't have the follow-through for larger projects like that (nor really the walls to put up shelving). So I was thinking instead of using a couple to stack sideways like shelves, but to hold the notecards and books at the craft fair. Since they're sort of 70's looking (which is not the vintage I'm going for) I figured I could paint or collage (or both) them to mix better with my stuff, but without detracting from the merchandise. The side of the drawer would turn into the bottom of the shelf, and the new top would be another surface to display signs or merchandise on. Also, since I do more than just the paper goods I'm selling there, painting and decorating these would be a good way to show I can do custom work like that for someone who might be interested.

Has anyone here used drawers as shelves before? What am I not thinking of that might be important to keep in mind?

Thanks for all your crafty ideas, ladies (and gents)!