DIY IKEA Hack

IKEA Hack, The Hemnes Dresser

When my husband and I bought our home in May 2016 we wanted new bedroom furniture. We were gifted a King size mattress (thank you Aunt GiGi) and that’s all we had.My old bedroom dresser barely fit all my clothes and my husband somehow survived 25 years without a dresser. New furniture was a must. So where do young 20-something new home buyers go for furniture? IKEA of course!

I love IKEA. Walking through all the different rooms and getting ideas for your own rooms. Plus, you always find something you didn’t realize you would ever even need! Yes, need. We bought a bed, two nightstands, and originally one (but now two!) dressers.We really like the look of the Hemnes collection (which we bought) – but we wanted to give the furniture a light makeover to show off our personal style.

For anyone that knows us, we love anything white and grey. We purchased the Hemnes 8 drawer dresser in the white stain, which we contemplated keeping. However, we agreed this piece would flatter our bedroom space more if it was in grey. Painting furniture is a simple and affordable hack. Not just for IKEA furniture, but any furniture you like and want to make minor adjustments to.

I painted the dresser in Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey Chalk Paint. It is a stunning light grey color that goes on beautifully. It took two full coats and one coat of clear wax. After painting was complete we decided to play up the hardware.  We found great hardware from House of Antique Hardware online. This site has so many beautiful antique hardware replications, you will want them all!

Eventually, we chose the Solid Brass Diamond Ring Pull in the Brass Finish. These pulls really altered the look of the dresser and transformed it from a simple IKEA dresser to a unique piece of furniture. Because the Hemnes dresser is designed for IKEA specific pulls, we needed to alter the drawer fronts to properly fit the new hardware. We used a drill to make the holes for the pulls bigger by measuring the size of the new pulls and comparing that to our drill bits. This is super easy to do and you will be so happy when you make this small but dramatic change.

We bought enough hardware to make this change on the other pieces of bedroom furniture. The matching hardware on all the furniture brings the collection back together. This is a really simple IKEA hack that anyone can do. Adding subtle adjustments like new hardware or a coat (or two) of paint can really help transform a piece of furniture into a more personal part of your room.

What other IKEA hacks do you love?

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