My Very First Ikea Hack

I'm not sure if you've heard but you can buy cheap Ikea furniture, paint it, add some knobs and voila it looks like you spent more than $35 on a bedside table! I know, I know you're shocked. If you haven't had enough of the Ikea hacks floating around the internet, I'm here to bring you one more. It is not an original idea. I'd seen plenty of Ikea hacks and knew I would follow suit for the new house but wasn't totally sure what I would do until I saw Kirsten Krason's (of 6th Street Design School) take on the Ikea Rast dresser from a model home master bedroom she recently designed. I absolutely love her version of the Ikea Rast! 

Here is her version:

(Jylare Smith Photography via 6th Street Design School)

Here is what I started with (please excuse the crappy phone pics I  started to put this post together after a few glasses of wine last night, at which point I considered using my DSLR to be operating heavy machinery):

Kilz 2 Latex Primer and Behr Premium Plus Interior/Exterior Hi-Gloss Enamel Medium Base in some color like Serious White or Super Bright White, I honestly can't remember. Also, sorry for not taking a pic of this stuff before I used it. The links should clarify what the stuff looks like. Amateur blogger, right here.

Untouched and ready to be painted Ikea Rast dresser. Yes, that is a strapless bra on my dresser. Among other things. 

 Here is my end result:

Ta-da! Hardware from Lee Valley Tools

 I read a couple of different blog posts about painting Ikea Rast dressers. Some people primed it, some didn't. In the end, I decided to prime it because I wanted the dressers to look nice and was worried about the paint seeping right into the wood.  Some people chose to put a top coat on, which I decided against and instead used a durable paint that will wipe off easily.

I'm still waiting on these to be delivered, at which point I will spray paint them either Orange of Navy Blue, still undecided:

DeeDee Overlays from O'verlays by Danike & Cheryle LLC


As you can see, I copied Kirsten's design completely with the exception of the colors. I'm so glad creative people like her exist on the interwebz because I never could of come up with this myself. I would like to tell everyone out there who is scared of this type of thing, don't be. I was worried I was going to royally screw it and decided to just go for it. It was super easy and I'm really pleased with the end result. Once the house is semi-finished I will put up pictures that I take with my real camera!

So tell me, have you hacked an Ikea piece recently or planning on it?