This “Plain” IKEA BESTA Transforms into a Work of Art with a Maximalist Makeover
There are lots of ways to hack freestanding IKEA cabinets. You can add new feet, add texture to the cabinet fronts, and, of course, paint the piece. Some people even forgo artwork on the walls of their homes and use drawer fronts and doors as canvases instead. They let the IKEA furniture become a piece of artwork in itself.
That’s what Nabila Nasir (@meritedesignstudio) decided to do with her “plain black IKEA sideboard” — it’s a three-door BESTA unit — and it turned out beautifully.
“I don’t like anything too plain or without character in my home,” she says. “I couldn’t find the perfect sideboard I wanted for the space, so I decided I was going to hire a mural artist to paint a sideboard for me.”
The BESTA transformed with a painted mural.
Nabila hired an artist local to her named Manje (@tiggmanje) to paint the mural onto the BESTA, and she came up with the leopard design. “I love leopards, especially lazy sleeping ones,” Nabila says. She found a photo of a sleeping leopard via Google Search for Manje to base the mural on, and Manje took off the BESTA legs and used six paint colors to create her design.
Now, it’s the perfect entryway piece. “[I love] that it’s a unique piece created only for me,” Nabila says. “The colors and style are mismatched to everything else in the home, but [it’s] still cohesive … looking at this also gives me a feeling of peace and calmness after a long day at work.”
As the sleeping leopard motif suggests, sometimes rest is just as important as work.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.