DIY // Ikea Box

It’s a bit of a different one from me today, as I attempt a DIY post, something which I have never done before in my year of blogging! I don’t do many crafty things to be honest as I’m not the most creative, but last year I got one of the plain wooden Ikea boxes and decided to have a go decorating it. These photos are a year old, which shows how long it takes me to get round to writing posts!

To start with you need one of the plain wooden Ikea boxes with the drawers taken out, some paint and something to paint with. I had leftover paint from when I decorated my bedroom so used that so it would be a perfect match, and I used a roller and tray to make it nice and quick and easy. Before you start painting I definitely recommend sanding the whole thing down, as I done my first coat of paint before realising this and it was a bit of a mess (my dad make have came to the rescue).

Then simply paint the whole thing! Including the little lines along the front that go in between the drawers. It doesn’t matter if you get paint on the inside of it at the minute as the drawers will cover it, and I don’t think I bothered to do the bottom. About two coats should do you, then let it dry and move onto decorating the drawers! :)

It took me a little while to decide how I wanted to decorate the drawers, but eventually I settled on good old wrapping paper. I got some of the posh stuff from Clintons that is about £3 a sheet as it was nice and thick, and I absolutely love the pattern on the one I chose. I knew as soon as I saw it this was the one I wanted! You could also use wallpaper or fabric if you wanted. For this part you will need something to stick your chosen material on with, I chose that really thin but super sticky craft tape and it worked well. You’ll also need a pencil, and I have no idea why I thought I would need a ruler as I don’t think I did at all.

This bit was slightly awkward and took a bit of trial and error to get right. At first I tried cutting out each side of the box separately but it meant the corners never quite looked right, so after doing one drawer like that I took to doing it this way. Basically you need a long piece of wrapping paper and put the front of the drawer face down right in the middle. Draw around this bit so you have what looks like one square, then flip the drawer to the left and draw around that side. After you’ve done the left side, you need to turn it back into the middle then over to the right and do the same. The above picture will hopefully be helpful as you can see that I’ve ended up with one long piece of wrapping paper that fits perfectly around the drawer. I stuck the craft tape on in strips as this made sure every bit was stuck down.
And this was the finished product! It’s not hard at all, just a little fiddly sometimes. I’m a bit gutted the top right drawer looks a little raggy along the bottom but that’s the one I tried cutting out each side separate for, but overall I’m really happy with how it looks. Sat on top of my Ikea Alex it looks lovely and matches my room perfectly!

What do you think? Would you have a go at decorating the Ikea drawers? I will admit one thing though, at the minute they are totally empty as I don’t know what to store in them!