Ikea Hack - Rast 3 Drawer Chest

As you know, we live in a small house and have limited space for storage - so every inch counts for us.  Our master bedroom is particularly small so we have made an effort to make it feel as large as possible, mainly by not adding lots of furniture.  Up until this point we have had our bed and a small antique dresser in our room and that's it.  We do have ample space on either side of the bed and have been wanting to add some sort of side table/storage option on either side, mainly for the added storage but also for some added decor and color.  We didn't want to spend much of course, so we began searching Craigslist and thrift stores for something that would work.  I'll be honest, it's hard to find a cheap solution, let alonne two cheap solutions that would work together.   Along comes Ikea.  I think this has become one of our favorite stores, have you noticed a trend?  They had lots of options but the smallest and cheapest was perfect for us.  So here's what we decided on:

This is the Rast 3 Drawer Chest from Ikea, it cost a mere $39.99 - which believe me was totally cheap, even compared to things I found on Craigslist.  The problem though, it's pretty ugly in it's raw state so we needed to vamp it up a bit.  I have been wanting to add more yellow accents to our gray and white beginnings so this project was the perfect chance.  The instructions tell you to assemble first before you paint or stain and that's what we did.  If you have never bought anything from Ikea you must know that this furniture comes in a lot of pieces and is packed tight.  Justin did say though that is was pretty easy to put together and he did it really fast. 

The instructions also say to sand before you do anything.  Hmmm, skipped that step but we still love the result.  I think the non-sanding left a textured look, which we like.  You can still see the wood grain texture which is kind of cool.  We added two coats of paint and that was that.  

As far as knobs go, we wanted to buy something new but couldn't find anything cheap enough that we liked right now so we will keep looking.  Instead, I spray painted the knobs with a silver paint in the meantime.  

We love the yellow color so much, it's not too bright and overwhelming but it's plenty bold enough to make a statement.  We used Olympic no VOC paint in a satin finish, color name - Belgian Waffle.  We also added these great table lamps (also purchased at Ikea).  I love how the pattern on the lamp ties in the fabric in our doorway.  

We love how this bedroom is coming together and we love the added storage we now have in our bedroom!

We still have things to add like some sort of artwork, we want to add shelving and maybe even a sitting chair - as long as it doesn't overwhelm.  But until then we are totally enjoying our little retreat called our bedroom.