Oh Joy! Inspired Ikea Hack

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Bland, boring, blah…All easily describe the super basic (though perfectly utilitarian!) Malm series care of my favorite budget home goods mecca—IKEA. To remedy the situation without breaking the bank, I decided to make the most of on-hand crafting supplies and a little inspiration gleaned from one of my favorite dynamic designer duos—Joy Cho and Emily Henderson.

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Since I’m positive that none of you could have missed the momentous occasion, I won’t go into too much detail of Emily Henderson’s design of the Oh Joy! studio. But one thing I definitely do want to zero in on is the extra special toe kick makeover that Emily created in order to add a little spunk to Joy’s storage situation. White cabinetry accented with gold metallics and pops of neon color? To say that I was inspired would be an understatement. And I’m finally (finally!) putting that creative light bulb moment to good use on a smaller scale IKEA side table that I picked up for a mere $50.

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First things first. To dress up the clean-cut face of my nondescript side table, I started by ordering a pair of inexpensive brass drawer pulls from eBay. In keeping with the mid-century inspired silhouette of the hardware used in the Oh Joy! studio, I went with a scalloped retro shape. Then, after finding the center of each drawer, I predrilled holes and screwed the hardware into place.

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Although Joy and Emily splurged on $90 gold contact paper for their project, I went a more modest route, instead manipulating a piece of $2.00 gold paper from the scrapbook section of our local craft store. First, I measured the height of the table’s mini toe kick and then cut the scrapbook paper down using a straightedge as my guide. Since the 12×12 sheet of paper didn’t quite fit the width of my table, I added a small scrap to one side knowing that the tape used in a later step would mask the quick fix. A bit of double-sided tape on the back of the metallic paper works to hold the two pieces firmly in place.

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Finally came the “wow” factor. Again, costing just a couple of dollars apiece, I bought rolls of solid colored neon tape to mimic the tape used in my inspiration image. Fuchsia, teal and orange combine with the gold underlayment to bring a ton of character and personality to my once-bland budget buy.

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You certainly can’t call this little side table “boring” any more! With fresh new hardware adding pizazz to the drawers and stripe upon stripe of color finishing off the bottom, I think that I found the perfect way (for me, at least!) to make the most of creative inspiration and my hard earned dollars. Oh, and the final tally for this 20-minute DIY furniture makeover? It clocked in at just $59.99.

SNAG THE LOOK:

IKEA side table: Buy it

IKEA desk: Buy it (DIY gold legs)

Ghost side chair: Buy it

Faux sheepskin: Buy it

Oh La La print: Buy it

Monogrammed mug: Buy it

Acrylic business card holder: Buy it

DIY paper pinwheels: Make it

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