A $50 Makeover Made This Plain IKEA HEMNES Dresser Look 3x the Price
The HEMNES dresser is an iconic IKEA piece, and many creative DIYers make changes to the storage-packed dresser to make it even more customized and personalized. The latest in clever HEMNES hacks is the dresser in Kate Ward’s daughter’s room.
“We bought this IKEA HEMNES drawer unit many years ago, and it has remained in its original white color ever since we assembled it,” Kate says. “I loved the storage it provided for all of our daughter’s clothes, but I felt like the white color was a bit cold and didn’t complement her bedroom color scheme … I wanted to give it an update to make it look more bespoke.”
The HEMNES got a darker wood look and scallop detailing in an approximately $50 project.
The wood effect was actually made using a special cabinet paint.
Kate’s daughter’s room has a woodland theme, and she wanted to give the dresser a darker wood look. Enter: Maison Deco’s wood effect kitchen cabinet paint, which worked perfectly for the HEMNES. “The wood effect brings so much more warmth when compared to the original white color,” Kate says.
“I first gave the drawers a sand using 120-grit sandpaper, before cleaning it with sugar soap,” she explains. “I saw a wood-effect paint that I had not tried before … which comes in two parts: a base coat and top coat to give a wood-effect finish.”
She applied the base coat in the direction that she wanted the wood-effect grain to appear, let that dry for 12 hours, and then applied the top coat in the same direction, “which enhances the wood grain effect,” she says.
A scallop detail on the bottom of the HEMNES adds extra charm.
Kate applied this same paint technique to a piece of scalloped trim, too. She added the trim to a scrap piece of wood leftover from another project (cut to the dimensions of the HEMNES) and then she clamped and glued that on the bottom of the dresser.
“The scallop trim is definitely my favorite part,” she says. “It wasn’t until I opened the scallop trim that I discovered it was self-adhesive, so that was really easy to fix to the drawers!”
The final addition was aged brass knobs. “I’m so happy with how it looks!” Kate says. “I’ve been able to retain the storage that I love about the HEMNES drawers, but it looks so much better in this space.”
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