Disclosure: I upcycled my IKEA chest of drawers with chalk paint I’d bought. But I was gifted some beautiful drawer-knobs to complete my chest of drawers makeover too. Trinca-Ferro have so many lovely designs to choose from — pop along and grab some inspiration from their website.
The Easter bank holiday gave me so many opportunities to roll up my sleeves and get a little creative.
Four lovely long days, where my boy was at home to keep an eye on our tiny sons, which gave me the chance to crack on with some projects I’ve been contemplating for a while.
We made Easter bonnets and Easter salt dough decorations, to hang on a little tree.
Plus I tried my hand at flower arranging for a styling challenge.
But the thing I was most desperate to do, over the four day bank holiday, was a chest of drawers makeover.
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How Can I Make My Chest Of Drawers Look Better?
We’ve had two IKEA Hemnes tallboys for more than 15 years now and I love them — because they generously proportioned and can hold a lot of clobber — but they aren’t the most attractive pieces of furniture we own.
They’re pretty enormous, which was fine when we first bought them. Our first home was the first floor of beautiful Victorian mansion block; huge rooms, with 12ft high ceilings, warranted large pieces of furniture to fill the space.
More than a decade on and we live in a tiny cottage — with fairly low ceilings and modest room sizes — and as a result, one of these poor old chest of drawers now lives in the shed!
The other sits in my dressing area and was just looking a bit tired and — dare-I-say-it — orange boring.
Chest of Drawers Decorating Ideas
I figured it was time to give this badboy tallboy a makeover.
Pinterest is full of fabulous ideas showing things to do with an old chest of drawers. From vinyl wrap to decoupage chest of drawers don’t have to be dull and boring!
I wanted to get rid of the orangey pine finish — and dull handles — and treat it to a little up-cycling magic.
I’d seen lots of chest of drawers makeover ideas online and dresser painting ideas, so thought I’d bite the bullet and give it a new look.
A Chest of Drawers Makeover
For The Love of Upcycling
I was so pleased with it, once it had been painted.
Much fresher than it had looked in years and finally starting to look less like a mass produced piece of furniture and more like a lovely get a personality all of its own.
I’ve up-cycled furniture in the past, using Annie Sloan paint — have a look at my desk up-cycling project — and used the clear soft wax after I’d painted. This time though I left the paint in it’s raw state. I love the matt, chalky finish and didn’t want the sheen that the wax gives.
Also, rather than use the original handles, I’d decided to search for some new ones and came across a fabulous online shop, called Trinca Ferro. They have so many different styles of handle, I was totally spoilt for choice.
Here is a little selection of some of my faves.
So many different kinds, I was like a kid in a sweetshop.
Ceramic, vintage, glass, bone , acrylic — in so many lovely shapes and designs. But I eventually narrowed it down to two that I really loved and kept coming back to.
And — as very often happens, in life — I found it just too difficult to decide between them. So ended up having both. Vintage style drawer-knobs in pink and green candy colours with intricate patterns.
They look so beautiful against the grey and old white and, in retrospect, it would have looked a bit bland to just have the same kind of design.
The two different colours and styles sit so nicely together.
Caro Davies is a former art-director turned writer and content-creator, and editor behind UK lifestyle blog The Listed Home. She writes about home-related topics, from interiors and DIY to food and craft. The Listed Home has been featured in various publications, including Ideal Home, Grazia, and Homes & Antiques magazines.
oh I love it Caro! your so flipping good at this stuff I have and awful orange chest of drawers in the girls room that I want to paint I highly doubt it’ll turn out as good as your though! x
Thanks Amy — that’s so lovely of you! Get the paints out!! You won’t regret it — I promise! They do some beautiful drawer-knobs for a little girls room. Butterflies and all sorts! x
This looks fantastic! I agree that it looks best with both sets of handles, a little variety really does spice things up a little and the two you have chosen are beautiful!
I’m planning on getting some charity shop chests of drawers and bedside cabinet to revamp for the boys bedroom. Did you need to sand it down at all? Also was it just a wood undercoat you used first or a special type? xxx
Thanks Katie :) If you’re using Chalk paint, there’s no need to undercoat or sand. Any other paint — eggshell or gloss — and you’ll need to lightly sand the surface before you start, in order to give it a ‘key’. I always tend to undercoat pieces with bog standard emulsion (!) this also gives it a bit of a key. The chalk paint gives pieces such a lovely finish but is prone to fingerprints and knocks. If you want a hardwearing finish, you’ll need to wax it — or just use eggshell paint, which gives a lovely, hardwearing, sheen xx
So pretty, I would love to do this with some of our ikea furniture (when I find the time) I’ve found this post so inspiring Caro! How pretty are the handles too? I really would be spilt for choice, I love the clock ones. They are just those little bits and pieces that I love to pick up even if I don’t have a use for them yet :) xx
Thanks so much Hayley! I love IKEA products but these definitely didn’t fit with the style of our house any longer. It’s amazing what you can do with a tin of paint, isn’t it? The handles have really finished it off well too! If there hadn’t been so many knobs on the drawers, I would have chosen numbered ones but sadly they only went up to 10 and I needed 12!! xx
Awesome Up-cycling. I loved reading about it! The handles are lush. I really liked the yellow floral one (number 9).
Angela @ daysinbed.com
Thanks so much Angela! Aaaargh — it was SO hard to choose!!! I love the yellow one too!! May need to create another piece of furniture so I can use some more!! ;)
This is so gorgeous. I love IKEA furniture and have a few pieces that could do with a bit of a makeover – you may have even given me enough confidence to have a go myself!!
Thanks so much Karen :) Go for it! It’s only paint at the end of the day… if you don’t like it, you can paint over it again xx
Caro this looks so beautiful, I am look for a desk to restore, so excited about it but cant find the right one, love all the door knobs I want blue glass ones I think but need the dest first ha ha, will be referring back to this fab post xx
I bought my desk off Ebay for about £50 Sarah! And funnily enough, after I’d up-cycled it, saw something similar in a lovely vintage shop for about £350!! Amazing what a bit of paint and new handles can do! ;) xx
you are so clever this is beautiful and those knobs are beautiful. Chalk paint is a genius too! Thanks
Thanks pet — the knobs are definitely the thing that make it sing!
I am seriously impressed, the finished article as absolutely beautiful hun. What an amazing job you’ve done xxx
Thanks so much lovely! I’m so pleased with it — it’s like having a brand new piece of furniture :)
This is so nice it makes me want to get all creative and start doing something with our furniture x
I can’t recommend it enough! Hugely satisfying — especially if it’s a piece of furniture that you’ve fallen out of love with x
That looks great – I’ve looked at Annie Sloan’s paints before – are they as good as everyone says? I want to paint an old iron garden table, which lives outside most of the year! #homecorner
I love her chalkpaint — my friend absolutely hates it and prefers to paint everything with eggshell! I’s suggest getting a tester jar and trying it out on something small — just to get the feel of it. Personally I love it :)
Fab, thanks!