Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into cute apothecary cabinet nighstand!


Happy Friday! I hope you aren't getting sick of seeing my master bedroom yet :) I have a few more projects in there and here's just one of them. I showed you the complete makeover last week, but then realized how badly I wanted new nightstands. Mainly for more storage space. We have a complete lack of storage in our house, and it's starting to show badly. So, I figured a good way to gain extra drawers of space in the bedroom would be to get bigger nightstands.

I'm also in the middle of redoing a room in my mom's house, so we went to Ikea and saw this smaller dresser for $35 and thought it would work perfectly in there. But then, when I started redoing it, I thought it would work even more perfectly in my bedroom :) Not to worry, I got another larger one to redo for her bedroom.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
The dresser is called Rast. It's rather small, but perfect for a nightstand. And of course I couldn't leave it just bare bones :) And I can't paint it all white either lol. Well, I could, but then it would blend into the wall too much. Plus, I wanted to give it a little masculine look for my rather frilly bedroom.

To get this look, I put the outside of the dresser together first and then just painted it white.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
Before assembling the drawers, I divided the drawer fronts into thirds, and then got our router and routed out two lines. This gave the illusion of having three small drawers instead of one big one.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
Then I filled in the current holes with some wood filler.

Next was to finish out the drawers. I did a new technique that I'll show you next week on how to get this new wood looking old in just minutes. No sanding required this time...although I really do love my other technique also, but this one is a tad bit easier.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand

Next was getting the hardware on. To match the drawer pulls I bought, I stuck a slew of screws into some styrofoam and spray painted them.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
To make sure the pulls were centered on each faux drawer, and to not lose my mind measuring each one, I did this little trick. I took a piece of paper and cut it to the size of the drawer (I had two separate sized drawers, the middle row is slightly smaller so I created a paper for that size also). I then folded the paper in half and then half again.I lined up the drawer pull on the folds so that it would be centered and marked where the screws would go.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
Then I lined it up on the drawer, and used a pen to mark through the screw marks onto the drawer. Then when I took off the paper, I knew exactly where the pull was suppose to go. Easy :)
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
I got these pulls for $2 each at Hobby Lobby. I looked everywhere to find the perfect pulls. Even almost ordered some from China. But, I'm glad I stuck with these ones...they look wonderful :) ...and it helps that I don't have to wait 2 months to get them from China lol.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
They really brought some dimension into my bedroom...and interest. And of course, a little masculinity :) I'm hoping the hubs appreciates that.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
I was worried about losing the extra depth that my old nightstand had, but this made up for it in length. And now I have an empty drawer that I'm sure will get full of stuff real quickly :)
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
The price to redo one of these was $53. $35 for the dresser itself and $18 for the hardware. I had the paint and stain already on hand.
Ikea Rast Dresser Hack -turned into a cute apothecary cabinet nighstand
Now I just have to get myself to finish making the other nightstand :) It's been sitting in my garage disassembled for like 2 weeks now lol. That's life for ya.

11 comments

  1. super cute hack! I love the weathered wood look against the white.

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  2. I love that!! Great job, Alicia!

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  3. I love it! It was a great idea to paint the sides white and to leave the drawers natural :)

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  4. This is SO awesome!! I love the look of the faux small drawers. Such a clever makeover. Your room is gorgeous, too!! :)

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  5. this is awesome. Have you posted your new method for getting the look of old wood?? i would love to start this project soon

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  6. what size router bit did you use??

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  7. Stunning and brilliant! Love!! Thanks so much for sharing with us. Alex

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happy DIYing! Alicia