IKEA Dresser Hack: Before & After

This past week I decided it was time to do something about that dresser we picked up from IKEA ages ago that we've been using unfinished and without knobs.  I had found some pretty brass hardware at our local consignment/antique shop and chose to use the same shade of red we have on our front door to paint the dresser.

First I filled the old pre drilled holes for the original knobs with wood filler and then sanded once dry to prepare for priming.  On unfinished wood I always use oil based primer, even though the cleanup is messier and the smell is worse than with latex.  That's followed by several coats of latex paint (it took me three or four to get the coverage I wanted) or two of oil.  In this case we already had extra of Behr's "Licorice Stick" in latex, so I used that, but usually I prefer the sheen and coverage of oil based paint for furniture.

Once everything had dried, I measured carefully and drilled new holes for my brass drawer handels.

Happy Friday!

Liza