IKEA HACK: Rast Dresser Makeover

Love an Ikea Hack? Me too! I bet you can tell that by now with all the fabulous IKEA Hacks I have been doing. This one is even more fabulous. I have decided to give my aunt’s new IKEA Rast Dressers a complete makeover. When I helped her pick this dresser out at first, I knew that I wasn’t in love with the raw wood look to it. It needed to change because it just didn’t match her decor. I could have chosen to spray paint it (because I am a proud spray paint trigger happy person) but instead, I choose to stain it.

Before staining, I had help building it. I found that the wood was not as smooth as I was hoping and actually very rough on the skin. Good thing, I now have a sander so sanding this dresser was easy. No more doing this by hand, thank goodness! After using  Black & Decker MS600B Mouse Sander Polisher with Zone Touch, it was ready for staining.

It wasn’t until they were both built and I got out my leftover can of  Minwax 22718 1/2 Pint Wood Finish Interior Wood Stain, Ebony that I realized staining it would have been a lot easier if I had done it without it being built.

However, I came up with with ways to get the stain onto smaller hard to reach nooks and crannies. It’s a simple trick and it worked fantastic on this project. By using a small paint brush (the ones your kids use to paint with or dollar store ones.) I was able to get to all the sections that I needed.

Next, I allowed it to dry. It did not take too long for it to dry because it was a hot day out when I was working on it on the balcony. It also helped that while one was drying, I was working on the other one. I wish I remembered to put painter’s tape at the bottom of the drawers so that it didn’t get stain on it, but I forgot. Lesson learned.

Time for the clear coat. For this project, I used my leftover can of Minwax 23000 Fast Drying Polyurethane Gloss, 1/2-Pint for a nice smooth shine on this dark dresser. Started on the outside of the dresser then worked on the drawer doors. I left each drawer open so that it can dry evenly then I allowed it to dry overnight.

Day 2 of this project, I did a second coat of the clear coat on the dressers. While it dried all day, I was spray painting by using Krylon 51511 Silver Interior and Exterior Decorator Paint – 11 oz. Aerosol on the dresser handles taking it from blah to glam!

Once everything was dry, it was time to put the silver handles on and move the dresser back inside. I place these drawers into my mom’s walk-in closet and stacked them one on top of the other. There was one thing that was really bothering me… the inside of the drawers. I know that no one really sees the inside unless you take out all of the clothing that will soon be inside, but I felt very unprofessional if I didn’t come up with something to hide it.

Saw some leftover decor paper and self-adhesive decor paper that I had laying around. I cut it to the size of the bottom drawer and added four wall mount stickers to each corner in case one day my aunt decided to change it. I didn’t have enough for all the drawers so I came up with a pattern.

Related:

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• DIY Dresser Drawer Dividers
• IKEA HACK: Spice Rack TV Stand