IKEA Tarva Dresser Hack, Round II

As much as I swore I wouldn’t buy furniture at IKEA for the new house, I found myself planning another IKEA hack! We hacked a dresser for our bedroom a couple of years ago, but that dresser didn’t fit right in our new bedroom. Because we want to get a whole new bedroom set in a few years, I didn’t want to splurge on an expensive dresser now. So we opted to hack the Tarva dresser one more time – this time the taller/skinnier version! It was so easy and we’ve gotten so many compliments on it that I decided to share it. Here’s how it went…

THE HACK

Where to Buy: We bought the 5-drawer Tarva dresser in store, on sale for just $103. I noticed that it’s not online anymore, so I’m wondering if that means it’s going extinct?! If that is the case, you can also apply this hack to the 6-drawer version (which I like better if we could have fit it!) and that can be purchased online here!

Assembling the Dresser: Blake assembled the dresser, leaving the bottom off for cutting/staining. He also assembled the drawers, but we left the knobs off and didn’t put them into the dresser yet for painting purposes.

Cutting the Legs: This part requires a bit of skill, but I think it’s what gave the dresser the most style so it’s worth it! Blake cut the block-shaped legs at an angle to give them a more modern-looking shape.

Painting: I wanted the dresser white, but I also considered a cool navy or light turquoise. I used an eggshell white that matched the molding in our room to paint the main body of the dresser and the drawers (don’t paint the piece that will go on the bottom). I ended up doing three coats, letting it dry in between each layer. I actually painted the dresser while it was upside-down, so that once it was dry we could add the legs!

Staining: We used the same stain/method for the bottom pieces that we used on our last hack. Once the legs and the paint on the dresser were dry, we finished assembling/attaching them to the dresser and flipped it over so we could paint the top!

The Pulls: This was the fun part – picking out the pulls! We decided on a single clean gold rod for our dresser, and after a couple of trips to different hardware stores we found exactly what we wanted on Amazon! These pulls fit the dresser perfectly, using the holes already there!

THE RESULTS

And here she is, in all her glory! What do you think?! I have to admit that I still look at it and see an IKEA dresser, but you really can’t beat the price, it’s one-of-a-kind, and buys us a few more years to commit to the bedroom set of our dreams ;). IKEA Tarva Dresser | West Elm Vase | Rose Quartz | “Beverly I” Print by The Aestate