Here’s a Fun, Easy Way to Hack an IKEA Dresser with Contact Paper

One trick to curating a unique and stylish (but still functional!) home is finding ways to insert your style in the most unexpected places. That could look like painting your upholstered headboard or even decorating the rim of your bathroom mirror. Or if you’re into wallpaper, for example, there are always new places to try it out.

Dominique Ivory and her fiancé live in a 700-square-foot apartment in New Jersey that they’ve been renting for about three months. “We wanted a place that felt like home,” Ivory says in her house tour. “It’s been a dream to freely decorate and just be ourselves here. I think we did a good job making it cozy but still elevated and adult without being too boring.” She considers her design style “eclectic Black girl cozy” and quickly filled their place with color, plants, and tons of fun patterns.

Ivory’s favorite room in the house is the living room, which is one of the boldest and most colorful. “It’s also the room I worked hardest on,” she says. “I took my time selecting everything in there. From the rug to the throw pillows, it was all a deliberate choice.” One really interesting choice she was made was placing a bedroom dresser near the dining table — but it totally works, thanks to a clever hack she came up with.

“If you need more storage but want to make it pretty, this is the secret!” Ivory says. She bought the plain, white dresser from IKEA because it was functional and fit perfectly in their dining space. To dress it up and make it prettier, Ivory ordered a floral print contact paper from Amazon and covered each drawer front with it. “We even added some plants on top and a basket for all our junk,” Ivory says. You may think dressers belong in bedrooms, but this one looks like it belongs right where she put it.

Whether you have an old dresser that you want to give a new purpose or can’t seem to find the perfect storage piece, Ivory’s trick could be the solution. Her biggest piece of advice for creating a home you love? “Don’t worry about what works and what doesn’t or going for a certain aesthetic.” If you love it, then it works!