After Steve and I purchased the house 3 years ago, we didn't have much money left over to furnish it. Most of our money was put aside for our future wedding. A lot of our furniture pieces were hand-me-downs from family members or newly purchased items from IKEA. Over time, we sold some of them on Craigslist. However, there were a few pieces we decided to keep and re-purpose into something special. Two of the items that made the cut were our IKEA Malm 3-drawer dressers. We originally bought them because at the time, the price was right and we desperately needed extra storage for our bedroom. Living in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with no basement or attic storage can really pose a problem over time!
IKEA is one of those places you love to hate, but when you are in a pinch, and short on cash, it always comes through! I tend to find a lot of items there that I can re-purpose and design into something that better suits my taste.
Take the Malm dresser for instance....
We chose this dresser because of it's clean lines and storage capability. It was also the perfect height to be a nightstand on either side of our bed. Speaking of which, I love looking at the magazines and seeing all of the nightstand options that are out there. A pedestal table on one side, a vanity/dressing table on the other. Or maybe an overstuffed reading chair on one side and a large tall chest on the other. I just couldn't do it in my home. There is something about having 2 different pieces of furniture flanking the bed that would drive me crazy! I know it's totally "in" right now, but I need symmetry in my life. Maybe it was all those accounting classes in college that kept forcing us to balance that made this an issue for me. Who knows? Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, everything should come in pairs. Now if I had more space in my home, I would add those as accent pieces, but that's another story for a different day.
After bringing the dressers home, assembling them, and putting them in place, I decided that they needed a little "something". After browsing online at a few home decor websites, I knew what direction I wanted to go in. I really enjoy mixing antique and vintage piece with modern clean line pieces. I feel like it gives the home a real lived-in vibe. I tend to go for a farmhouse chic or modern cottage look when designing my home. Here were a few of my inspirations for the dressers:
After I decided on what direction I wanted to go in, I searched around the web for the perfect drawer pulls. I ended up choosing these antique brass ring drawer pulls. I liked the simplistic vintage feel and the antique brass patina. They would look gorgeous against the all white clean drawer front. I ended up ordering 12 of them (2 for each drawer, 6 drawers total).
Once the drawer pulls arrived, we went straight to work. I made a cardboard template the size of the drawer front and measured out where I wanted each drawer pull to be placed. Since I knew I wanted the pulls in the middle of each drawer front, I put paint tape across the drawer where the holes would be drilled. This keeps the laminate finish from chipping when it's being drilled into. After all the drawer fronts were taped, I placed the template on each of the drawer fronts and predrilled holes through each drawer for the hardware. I purchased the vintage brass drawer pull rings on eBay and they did not come with the bolts. After 3 trips to Ace Hardware to get the right size bolts (that was Steve's job), I attached the hardware to the drawer fronts using a screwdriver. Once the last screw was tightened, I took a step back to look at how marvelous they turned out!
The total cost of the project was:
2 - IKEA MALM 3-drawer dressers ($69.99 each) = $139.98
12 - Antique Brass Ring Drawer Pulls on eBay = $10
12 - Bolts = $1.25
Total = $151.23
Compared to a similar vintage dresser by TH Robsjohn Gibbings for Widdicomb. Ivory lacquer with brass hardware. $3,900. US, 1940's.
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