Before and After: A Few Basic Changes and About $42 Make This IKEA Nightstand Unrecognizable

Sometimes when you move into a new place, you don’t have time to wait on a “perfect fit” piece of furniture. For some necessary items, you might find yourself buying “for now” furniture, like designer Marcus Merta did. Once he moved into his new home, he needed a nightstand — and an IKEA VIKHAMMER model was the just-right fit since it was cheap, easy to assemble, and had a minimalist look and feel.

After a while, though, Marcus wanted to experiment with something new — and after seeing colorful, lacquered nightstands for sale, he decided to try creating his own.

Marcus started by sanding his nightstand’s slick laminate surface to give his paint a better grip. He followed that with two coats of spray paint in a bubblegum pink color as well as a clear topcoat for protection.

Once that was done, Marcus bought half-round moulding and cut it to size to frame the face of the nightstand; he painted the moulding to match the rest of the nightstand, then glued the pieces to the outside edges of the frame. (He also added a new knob painted in the same color to match the nightstand.)

Finally, Marcus removed the legs and used a furniture mounting kit to affix the nightstand to the wall. The floating piece is unrecognizable from its humble beginnings, and it took just 35 € (about $42 U.S.).

“I love everything about it,” Marcus says of his new pink floating nightstand. “It’s so perfect, and it always looks better when it is a DIY!”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.