This is one of the most easy and quickest furniture makeovers that I have done recently minus the drying times. I always want to show you all the most doable things that can be done to your old pieces so that without spending a lot you can create beautiful and artistic finishes.
I live in the Middle East and expats here usually have a lot of IKEA furniture because of its reasonable price and high functionality. However, I have gone bored of the plain black/white/beige finishes that their pieces have so I have started to post about some recent IKEA makeovers that I have done in my home.
For this project you can use any brand or color that you like or is easily available in your area. I have used the following:
- One set of small IKEA pinewood drawers
Dark-brown clay/water based paint (brand: Kayan)- Fawn clay/water based paint (Brand: Kayan)
- IOD moulds (I used IOD-TRIM 1, you can use any silicone shallow moulds available).
- Air-dry clay (I have used Jovi’s grey awful looking clay here)
- Annie Sloan’s Clear Soft Wax to seal the paint with
- Annie Sloan Dark Wax for depth
- Two bruses medium sized brushes
- Wood glue
- A few lint free rags
- Gold paint/Gold dust
APPLYING MOULDS
Firstly, I opened the clay and took out enough to fill up my first mould. Keep the rest in airtight packaging. You will have to knead it to make it more moldable. Then roll it with your palm on a clean dry plain surface into a cylindrical shape. Keep it right in the center of your mould and start pressing it in both direction to fill up the mould, Keep pressing it until you feel that the clay cannot fill up the mould further. Take the excess clay off with a putty knife (you can use a normal old butter knife too).
After you feel it is leveled at the surface, gradually start taking it out of the mould by loosening both ends gently. Slowly lift your molded clay. Add some wood glue to the back of the motif and place it wherever you want it to go. Here I have placed 6 trims on the sides of three drawers.
Note: I did not like working with Javi’s clay as it was drying up too fast and cracking too easily. IOD’s own air-dry clay gives much better results.
APPLYING WOODEN APPLIQUES
I had some wooden appliques lying around at the back of my paint shelf gathering dust for the last one and a half years so I have put that on the bottom drawer to add more carved bits to the piece.
Drying time for clay
Let it dry for at least 24 hours. There were a few cracks that appeared after 24 hours on my motifs so I ended up using some wood putty to fill those up.
APPLYING PAINT
After the piece is dry, apply a basecoat of dark brown paint (medium density). Let it dry for an hour or so. After that apply the beige/fawn coat on the piece all over. I have used less paint second time because I wanted some dark brown to show from underneath.
WAXING
After 2 hours of the last paint coat, I used Soft Clear Wax with a round wax brush all over the piece and wiped the excess off with my lint free rag. Then add on dark wax all over carved areas to create depth and removed the excess again.
I then applied a little acrylic gold paint to high light some flowers and vines on my piece.
Finally, if the fancy strikes you can always change those sad wooden knobs that come with IKEA pieces and go with some funky ones to add more personality.
Tadaaaaa…….You have your very own chic chest of drawers ready to make any corner in your room gorgeous.
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