Freakin awesome makeover

SO did you know that....

Ikea sells furniture unfinished, that is meant for projects?
THIS is the rast nightstand for $29.99 each, made of solid pine. Ugly as is, right? But some creative people have transformed it, and I've got the how-to!

Clever Nancy from marcus design loved the look of the Dorothy Draper chests. They were featured on Sex & the City and retail at a whopping $1850 each!!! Or even more, that's kinda the average price I found.

This is what the real thing looks like in all its beauty....

From Nancy's blog...

How I got the Dorothy Draper inspired look:

1) I bought 2 Rast dressers from IKEA, and assembled the tables, except for the drawers.

2) I primed the 'body' of the dresser {assembled} and the fronts of the doors and then sprayed them using RustOleum's black lacquer spray {Tip, I would buy the attachment for spray paint cans to make spraying evenly much easier...oh, and wear a mask and spray in a well-ventilated area!}. I did 2 coats to get good coverage.

 

3) I took inspiration pics from Dorothy Draper chests online, and blew them up to be able to draw the shape of the inlay on a piece of transparent paper that I cut to be the same size as each drawer. Here is where the measure-twice-cut-once rule really applies! To be truthful, this is where my Dad's engineering skills came in handy, thanks Dad!  We cut the stencil using an art Xacto knife, leaving gaps so that the centre of the stencil stayed attached to the outside. We secured the stencil onto the drawer using painter's tape.

4) Using Liquidtex's Iridescent Rich Gold heavy body acrylic paint, we carefully painted on the design. I removed the stencil after allowing the paint to dry for about 1 hour. I taped off the gaps that remained (due to the stencil) and filled those in. I let this dry over night and then went over the gold free-hand to make it even thicker afterwards.

5)  I then put the drawers together on the built shelf, and put in some beautiful bronze ring pulls from Lee Valley Tools. Confession: I still have to coat these babies in a glossy varathane to protect them (on the to-do list!).

Source guide:
Ring pulls: Lee Valley (size: 51mm x 43mm- $2.40 x 12)

Side Tables: Ikea Rast Table ($29.99 each)

Black Paint: RustOleum's Black Lacquer spray ($5.99 per can x 4)

Transparent Stencil paper: Opus Arts ($1.80)

Gold Paint: Liquidtex Iridescent Rich Gold - Opus Arts ($6.60)

Xacto knife: Opus Arts ($3.49)

And here is what her nightstands ended up looking like in her bedroom:

This is fantastic.. and ended up being like 1/10th of the price, or less

Here's what some others have done with that same dresser:

From this

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To this!

And another version

via

Or this

via designsponge

I dunno about you but these have inspired me in a big way. Imagine the possibilities with a simple ol chest of drawers!