Simply Beautiful By Angela

creating simple beauty on a budget

IKEA Rast Makeover (Take Two!)

Hello!  I hope you all are having a great week so far.  Mine is going slowly but surely–I’m telling you guys, I am starting to get a serious itch for a vacation! I am hoping we will have one in March if all goes well…
Anyways, today I am back with another tutorial from our Master Bedroom Makeover.  A lot of you have asked me about how I created the nightstands and their story actually goes waaaaay back.
It all started two years ago when I purchased a couple of IKEA Rast dressers.

(source)
I had been searching high and low for some matching “grown up” nightstands to replace our laminate storage cubbies that we were using at the time, but everything was turning up way out of our price range.
The biggest selling point on these was their low price tag of only $35.  I also liked that they were easy to customize with a  little bit of paint, stain and new hardware.  You can read the full tutorial on their first makeover here but to recap I  began by priming and painting the outside white.
I applied two coats of a light white wash on the drawers and then applied some Minwax Wood Stain in Provincial on top once the white wash was dry.

I also painted some lattice white and used it to frame out each drawer and I replaced the two wooden knobs with one nickel one in the center.

This is how they turned out!

Pretty nice, right?  But over the last two years I started having ideas about how I could have made them even better.  So when I decided to give our whole bedroom a makeover for the One Room Challenge I decided to give them a second makeover!

Supplies Used To Make: (Affiliate links may be provided for convenience.  For more info, see my full disclosure here.) 
The wood lengths listed are what’s needed to make one dresser so double it if you are making two!

I first wanted to plank the top in order to hide the raised edges that were on either side. To do this, I simply attached two 1x4s and a 1×6 directly to those edges using liquid nails. You can see in the picture below that there will be a little overhang and I chose to place it over the front of the dresser.

The other thing that bothered me was the funny indentation it had on the bottom.  I decided to disguise it with some moulding but in order to do that I had to first build that space so that the molding had something to attach to.  I first used liquid nails to attach some 1/4″ scrap plywood pieces.

I then attached a 1×4 on top of those. I used a piece of scrap lattice to hold those pieces up while they were drying so that it was almost flush with the top.
 

The next day I went back with some lattice and framed out the top.  I countersunk my nails by using a large screw to tap them in (perfect solution if you don’t have a nail gun that sinks them for you) and then filled the holes in with wood putty.
 

I used a miter saw to cut my moulding and attached it to the base using liquid nails. As you can see I decided that I only needed to put moulding on the front and the sides. 

Once it was dry I went back with my trusty caulk gun and disguised the mitered cuts as well as where the molding meets the dresser.
 

After painting the new top and the molding I gave it all a coat of my Chalky Clear Sealing Wax that I recently discovered and love.
 

And here it is today!

I decided that I wanted two pulls on each drawer so I filled the hole that I had in the center of each  and gave each drawer a heavy whitewash to try to disguise it.  You can still kind of see it but only if you are REALLY looking for it!
  
One more look at how they looked after makeover number one…

Compared to now!
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So much more polished–don’t you think? 

I love that I no longer have those goofy little raised edges on the top and that I don’t have to look at that awkward indentation at the bottom.

This is what they looked like back in the day before my Master Bedroom Makeover…

And here they are sitting proudly in the new room!

Alright friends I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and a happy weekend!  Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Linking up to these awesome parties.

Comments

  3. That turned out amazing! Pinning to my before and afters furniture board! We would love to have you at our To Grandma's house we go link party that opened this Wednesday morning and lasts all week! Its at grandmashousediy.com 🙂

  4. Beautiful and attractive wooden bench piece. Angela, I am your biggest fan follower. I always tried to follow you but somehow I made mistake on my projects. Now, I am tried to follow you properly. Thanks for being an inspiration for all.

  5. Both versions are lovely but your new update does make them look way classier and more expensive. They seem like a weighty piece of furniture now somehow. Pinning

  6. The first version was really nice and never though you could get more beautiful than that, but you really did it! I came from Pin Me Linky Party, so I pinned your project 🙂

  7. I love these! Pinned and shared! I have a dresser I want to makeover and this is perfect inspiration for it, it's my night stand too. Thanks for linking up to #HomeMattersParty

  10. These are just stunning and so crisp and clean looking! I wanted to let you know I'll be featuring you at tonight's Funtastic Friday Link Party! Thank you for sharing 🙂

    • Thank you–IKEA Jackson are definitely one of my favorites for both budget and creativity! Thanks for the feature and for hosting an awesome party 🙂

  12. These are beautiful!!!! I think I am overlooking something. How did you paint the drawers? They look grey, which I love

    • Thanks Lori! I went over them with two coats of whitewash (a cup of paint with a couple tablespoons of white paint mixed in) and then stained them with mini wax Provincial. Then applied a couple more coats of whitewash on top 🙂

    • Hi there! Love the whitewash effect and dying to do the same on a big wood bed we salvaged. Would like to clarify the whitewash technique, you said a cup of paint with a couple Tablespoons of paint in it…Did you mean water with 2 Tablespoons paint? Thanks for the share!

  14. These posts helps a lot and give ideas for innovation. While functional, furniture also serves to introduce colour, pattern and texture into a room therefore contributing to the deco and comfort. Thanks for sharing such an informative information.

  15. Love it! I have these same nightstands from ikea and am definitely going to do this!

  17. Hi Angela, I really love this idea, especially the drawers. I have one question: the drawers look a bit more grayish in the second make over, is that because of the heavy white wash you gave the drawers to hide the hole in the middle? I kind of want to get that grayish look and I am not sure if I should stop after the first two white washes and stain or should I keep going further with another white wash on top. Many thanks for posting this!! 🙂

    • Nevermind!! I saw somebody asking the same question further up on the thread, so I now know the answer. Sorry!