apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Wow, that looks so beautiful and very high-end! Great job!

stunning!!!!!

sure, the dressers are nice, but tell me where those yellow pillowcases are from - i think i'm in love!

My internal monologue "Damn, those look good."

I love it!

I think the pillow cases (and sheets in general) are Dwell Studio.

looks great...

Excellent.The dark glossy stain make it look like a completely different wood too.

LOVE THIS!

Brilliant!

I have that dresser. And it sorely needs a makeover. Your dressers look absolutely lovely with the stain.

I like the idea, but not the execution. To my eye she's taken a cheap, generic piece of furniture and made it look like a completely different cheap, generic piece of furniture. If she'd used a colour rather than white, especially in a subtle shade that picked up other colours in the room, I think these would have been better.

I'm super impressed by this!

I think the wood part looks great. As blandwagon mentioned, I think the front could have had a bit of color, maybe even just a light gray.

Woweeeee, I love them. Bravo to you.

I love the dressers. I stained my small, Ikea nightstands in walnut too and loved the look.

And the yellow pillowcases are Dwell Essex and I have them on my own bed.

You can see both here: http://onegrandhome.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/the-perfect-spot-for-a-dream/

they look awesome! i wanna do this now!

wow, they do look amazing! i like the set up as a whole.. good eye.

awesome!

I like it, but it was already done (and better execution) here:

http://pennypeople.blogspot.com/2008/09/weekend-project-ikea-rast-overhaul.html

and

http://www.dmdinsight.com/blogs/post/182-weekend-project-2-days-2-nightstands

Brilliant job!

Calling this a "hack" isn't such an apt metaphor (and swiftly descending into a lame Internets cliche). What the designer has done here is more of a reimagining than a bypass or circumvention.

Again, bravo.

good job!

would like to see a hint of color when you get tired of the white give the room more color dimension. excellent piece though, hopefully you like the stain enough to just to have to repaint the front when the rearranging itch hits.

wow! impressive transformation!

WOW. She did a very professional job and easily quintupled the value. I'm amazed and inspired to try it myself.

Not to be sipping on the haterade like some other people, but I'd love to see this with a dramatic headboard. Maybe one of the DIY closet door headboards stained to match? Regardless, this is gorgeous.

Amazing!!! Start selling them!!!!

I think these look really good. I like the white and dark stain combination--it's classic. Perhaps the knobs could be switched out for more colorful ones later.

Love this! I love the subtlety. I'm much for the greys/muted tones, so I think the whole thing is fantastic and works really well with the grey walls and the dwell mustard-y pillowcases.

As stated in the text, Kate was inspired by this being done before, and I personally love seeing each new version of this and the little details (like the knobs/stain color) that each person brings to it. It really gets the point across that you can take something like ikea furniture and personalize it for what you want and what might work in your apartment.

missdee: Kate would be the first to admit it's already been done and quite openly says she was inspired by Eric's project, even following his instructions!

I think she's done a wonderful job and I'm more than a little bit jealous.

i like this.

and while i may or may not have chosen different colors or opted for different hardware or a different headboard or different flavor haterade {genius term, by the way.}...i like one thing the best:

that you actually did something. as opposed to sitting on your bum and wishing that you actually did something.

like i often do.

well done, you.

Very nice!

wow!!!! i'm so inspired now. thank you!

I think these are well done, classic and stylish.
However, I also think that some of these comments are completely deplorable - since when exactly did it become appropriate to point out "cliched" internet language, or link to somebody who "did it better"? For shame. Sit on your typing fingers if you have nothing constructive or of interest to say.

Love it. Sort of reminds me of CB2's Harmonica line. Just curious, is your bed sitting on the floor? My ceilings are sloped and so my bed and boxspring need to sit on the floor. I wanted to do something similar with the rast but was concerned they would be too high next to the bed. I wish Ikea made the rast in larger dressers and beds, so that the same makeovers could be executed on a larger scale.

awesome!

I love this DIY! I really like the high gloss applied over the walnut stain, which is contrasted so nicely by the crisp, bright white. Very sexy. I feel inspired by this project, which is so simple and obvious, but makes a world of difference in an otherwise plain piece of furniture.

So glad that she used a clean glossy white, as opposed to some trendy color of the month, to contrast with the wonderful dark stain. This hack may not be "original", but looking at the examples cited above, I think it by far returned the best results.

Those of you complaining because she used white need to keep your tacky crayons to yourselves.

I like the dark stain with the white. It's very clean and neutral.

I would consider ebonizing rather than staining, though. All you do is apply permanent India ink with a foam brush, let dry, sand very lightly to get rid of raised grain, coat again. You could do a whole dresser like this with just a few ounces of ink (available where arts & crafts supplies are sold).

The ink does tend to rub off in the first few weeks after application. I waited until it wasn't shedding much and then put a coat of paste wax over it and buffed.

The ink is totally opaque but you can still see the grain of the wood. It's a very lustrous, soft black. I love it.

Love it every time i see it. I bookmarked it when Eric did it, and now i am adding it to my to do list. Nice job!

It's great fun to see variations on the project!

Thank you MissDee for linking to my post (PennyPeople), I'm Lindsay.

The project above was inspired by Erics post (as someone pointed out) and as Eric notes in his description he was inspired by my project (thank you Eric!). What has unfortunately been missed in translation from my original post in September 2008 to now is that the original inspiration and concept was from Style at Home Magazine. I think we need to give them a shout out for their inspiration.

The original post is from September 2008 over here:
http://pennypeople.blogspot.com/2008/09/weekend-project-ikea-rast-overhaul.html