Ashley sent in a good question for the crowd: When my husband and I first got married, we purchased our first real piece of furniture together - a new bed. We selected a big, beautiful dark-wood four poster and paired it with sea inspired blue walls and cream linens....(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.
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Good Questions: Mandal into Modulicious?
This worked marvelously in our sunny, spacious apartment outside of LA. Unfortunately, living outside of LA didn't work too well for us so we hauled ourselves and our big bed up to Seattle for a lifestyle more to our liking. We now live in a 2 bedroom, 900 sq. foot condo (yes, roomy by some standards, but it took a little getting used to for us native mid-westerners) and our big four poster is overtaking our master bedroom like a giant weed.
We've finally decided to uproot this sentimental piece and replace it with something a bit more small-space friendly. While we're at it we'd like to ditch our bedside tables/dressers and create even more visual space. All these factors have contributed to my current love affair with Blu Dot's Modulicious bed despite the fact that our wallet can't support my amorous desire.
Thus I began my search for something similar and affordable and landed on, yes, you guessed it, the Ikea Mandal bed. My question is - I've heard discussions of folks modding the Mandal with paint, but has anyone hacked it by adding a headboard and/or footboard in addition to the surface treatment? Has anyone essentially turned Mandal into Modulicious?
Share your thoughts and ideas (maybe even some good Mandal hacks!) with Ashely in the comments below...thanks!
Comments (6)
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Could you add drawers to Ikea Malm somehow?
view shalgal's profile
Seems like it'd be easy enough to do. Just need some plywood (or whatever you like) and paint or stain. You could even throw some padding and fabric on.
view sweetchuck's profile
I was going to suggest the Malm also, you can always get those drawers also from Ikea to go underneath perhaps that would work
view eppie18's profile
I'm grateful that, even in my less than 900 ft. of space, I have a big enough bedroom for a beautiful bed. The beds pictured above are so depressing.
view stejeanne's profile
Here is a quick solution:
Anchor two 30"(l)X12"(h) Ikea Nexus brown cabinet doors to the foot of the bed as a footboard and anchor one 64X24 Nexus brown cabinet door to the wall as a headboard. Paint the sides of the bed a color that coordinates or contrasts with the color of your footboard. This solution only sets you back another couple hundred bucks.
view RichardinLA's profile
I presume you are looking at the Mandal version with the underbed storage. If you notice, the product description says you can "complete" it with the Mandal headboard (sold separately). If you wanted a footboard, you could get two headboards (assuming a footboard is not also available -- that I didn't check) and cut one down. Or just get some plywood cut to the right size.
After that it's just getting a finish that suits you. You could paint the bed but if you really like the book matched veneer of the Modulicious, another possibiility is actual veneer. I got some self-adhesive oak veneer to reface some bathroom cabinets in the house we recently sold. (Just Google the concept -- lots of companies...) It was easy to apply, cost about $100 for enough square footage for 6 standard cabinet doors plus some leftover, and looked very nice (much better than the cream formica!!) Just sanded the edges and coated with some polyurethane/stain combo. As long as the lines of the furniture are flat like the Mandal bed, it's an easy project.
view SherryBinNH's profile