So much of our house is incomplete right now. The living room has no furniture in it. The guest bedroom is filled with boxes, and our futon still serves as a "couch" in our den. But, the master bedroom takes the cake. In it sits our queen size bed (no headboard), some make-do nighstands, a dog crate, piles of clothes (since we used government-loaned furniture in Okinawa), and office supplies (we'll be housing our home office in our bedroom). We did just buy a used dresser, but it needs to be repainted, since the current color is not quite right.
I have big plans for this space, including the following projects:
- upgrade to a king size bed
- new bedding for new bed
- acquire matching nightstands
- purchase ottoman with storage for the foot of the bed
- acquire a desk with lots of storage
- acquire a dresser (or two)
- dress up the windows with some color
- hang art, shelves, etc.
- paint lamps or acquire new ones
My goal is to create a retreat that is pleasing to the eye and functional, especially with our home office here. I also have to fix up the master bath, but that's a whole different story (and blog entry). Back to the bedroom: I can finally cross off an item on my bedroom to-do, but first, here is a "before" shot of one side of our sad looking master:
Oh yeah, you gotta love the box of clothes on the floor. Classy, no? Seriously, though, I'm working on it. The first thing to do was to get some matching nightstands. Since our funds are limited, I knew I had to get creative. I scoured Craigslist, visited thrift stores, and spent much time online looking for something that didn't scream "college dorm" but was also inexpensive. I found this post (which also pictures the bed I hope to have someday) and decided to tackle the same Ikea hack on two Ikea Rast chests. In case you aren't familiar with the term "Ikea hack," it basically just means that you take a piece of Ikea furniture and change it. More Ikea hacks can be found here.
This is what the Ikea Rast chest looks like when fully assembled.
The directions for the hack were pretty simple from my online source. All I did was build the frame and stain it. Then I assembled the drawers and painted the fronts. I then polyurethaned the entire piece. Finally, I added different hardware than what was included with the chests. It was my first time working with furniture, so I learned a few things along the way, such as:
- Frog tape is awesome. Period.
-Staining furniture can get terribly messy. I got stain splatters all over the garage floors and walls somehow. Whoops.
- Mineral spirits do an excellent job cleaning up stain. :)
- Just because the polyurethane says that it's clear, doesn't mean it won't make your bright white look a little dull. Time to find a better one for next time.
- Finding good looking, affordable hardware can be a challenge. Ours came from a store in Cape Cod! I found it online since stores in my area didn't have what I was looking for.
- Ikea furniture is not made to last. More on that in a little bit.
And now for the big reveal of the final project...ta da!!
What do you think? I'm pretty pleased with the end result (now I just have to change those lamps!). Here's a closer shot with some better lighting. The stain is a dark walnut, the paint is a generic white that originated with the builder of our home (Chaffey white), and the hardware has an antique silver finish.
I mentioned earlier that Ikea furniture doesn't last and I realize that these will not last the test of time. They may only be around as long as we're here in Washington. But, they were very affordable, will function nicely in our space, and allowed me to learn about and practice staining and painting furniture. Now that these are complete, it's time to get back to that to-do list!
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