IKEA RAST HACK - Mod Podge Entryway Table

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First of all, I need to admit that I usually don't trust my DIY ability. And we've already discussed my aversion to shopping at IKEA. So one plus the other meant when I set out to make our sofa table, I actually bought three Rast dressers in case I completely screwed something up in the process. I figured if all went well, I could just return the third box unopened. Or use the scrap wood for something else since I HATE returning things at IKEA.

Second of all, I apologize because this isn't a very photo-rich post. This was kind of a project that I did randomly over the course of a couple weeks here and there, and when I do that I never remember to take pictures!

Anyway - I've already posted about the sofa table and it's success - what I didn't write in that post, was that one of the dressers that I used was missing the front of a drawer. Good thing I had a spare dresser to steal from.  But what that left me with was an opened, and partially used third dresser that I couldn't return. So what to do? Another IKEA Hack - that's what!



There is this dark, awkward space right next to our front door that has needed some TLC since we built the archway.  It's literally the first thing you see when you walk in the front door, and for the past year and a half I've tried different things - such as shoe storage, nothing, and just plain storage (I didn't plan that, it's just I have a tendency to pile stuff in unused spaces. It's a problem I have...).

See it over there? That awkward empty space?

Or here with a little table and shoe storage? (That table is now in the dining room holding plants!)

So I decided to turn this little dresser into an entryway table where we can drop our keys as we walk in the door. The only problem was that I was missing a drawer!  I've pinned enough dressers on Pinterest to know that I could easily just turn that empty space into a shelf though - and lucky for me I had an extra, unused side piece from the sofa table project.  I trimmed that down to size, measured, and a few screws later I had a nice, solid shelf! For the rest of it, I just did the same thing as I did with the sofa table - cut off the bottom, added some legs, and added a nice, solid top with trim.

After I filled all of the screw holes, I stained that baby a nice red mahogany to match the sofa table... and then quickly decided that that was just a bit too much dark wood going on in a small space. I wrestled with painting it a bright color - maybe a fun blue?! Or teal? Or yellow?! But ultimately I decided to paint it white because I didn't want it to clash too much with the awesome green walls.  And white looked great when I got it into the house, except it was just a little TOO bland... it still needed something...

So off I went on a house hunt to find some inspiration. I riffled through design magazines and design books (and briefly entertained the idea of doing YoungHouseLove's tip #218 - and trying to stencil a pattern or create a basketweave look, but ultimately decided that wasn't what it needed either.) This was followed by a search of the entire house in the hopes that something would pop out at me - just picture me running aroundpulling random blankets out of boxes in the basement, and rummaging through my leftover fabric scraps, and riffling through our linen closet in search of SOMETHING while the hubs and dog watched and did their best to stay.outta.my.way...

That search turned up an unopened bottle of Mod Podge - which then turned my search into a hunt for anything I could mod podge on that sucker. And ultimately, in a rolled up tube, I found my inspiration - a picture that I have loved for years, but never had framed because it's an odd size, and I'm too cheap to get it a custom frame.  But it was just my luck that it happened to be almost the perfect size to cover two drawers of a IKEA Rast Dresser.

Oh ModPodge, how I love thee...

My kitchen workspace - isn't that floor a beaut? :-/

And after a few hours of cutting and gluing and ModPodge under my fingernails - voila!

It's perfect! A great start to revamping that corner! The mirror above it is a $12 thrift store find that I still plan on painting a bright color, and the baskets are from IKEA too. And the space still needs a little TLC, but I already love how it looks in the space and the fact that I've added two more drawers for storage (which is key in such a small home!)!

And in parting, here is a shot of both pieces together. I think they compliment each other nicely!