Dresseramalamadingdong

.. or whatever.

Welcome to the third installment of my "it keeps on coming" series regarding master bedroom plans.

Part of the new plan involves space planning.  There's not much we can do with the bed and nightstands (the wall they're on is the only wall that will fit them)... but the wall opposite the bed is currently wall-to-wall IKEA antique brown.

Don't get me wrong... IKEA antique brown--which is getting hard to come by? My dresser is still available, five years later, but not in antique brown--actually fits into my new color scheme like a champ.  There's just a lot of it.  We have a HEMNES tallboy and a huuuuuuge (apparently discontinued) LEKSVIK three-door wardrobe crammed together.  The wardrobe seemed like a necessity moving in, because the MBR only has one (small) closet, and WHERE WOULD I PUT MY JUNK!?

I got inspired by Sherry's 'less is more' philosophy .. and the Mr.'s desire not to look at the wonky LEKSVIK doors anymore,* and we're tossing around the idea of getting rid of the wardrobe and sharing the tiny closet.  (Cue scream track).

This is turning into more of an essay on the furniture in our bedroom than I intended.

ANYWAY, we're left with good ol' Hemnes.  I've said it wasn't a bad color, but I'd love to rejuvenate it a bit and do it in a way that drives home the new color scheme.

This is a Craigslist picture, for color reference.

My first idea was to paint/stencil a fun motif on the drawer fronts. Just the drawer fronts. I found this awesome-looking chest over at Cassandra Design:

My idea was to leave the antique brown wood as the 'backdrop', but to use white/yellow on top.

THEN, as I am wont, I got freaked out about it not being reversible. I guess an IKEA dresser isn't, like, heirloom furniture, or anything, but... one day we might like to try and sell/donate it for a more traditional complement to our bed set.

So I thought, what if I wrapped the drawer fronts with fabric?  The Hemnes drawer fronts fit flush into the facade of the dresser, but there's actually a good-sized lip around the back side of the drawer front that doesn't interfere with either the slider mechanism or the sides of the drawer itself. I thought I could staple-gun some fun fabric, and screw the knobs back on over the top. Voila!

THEN, I thought, maybe it could be easier than that, even.  "Surely somebody makes chic-looking shelf liner paper these days." At first, it seemed I was wrong... then I found the ridiculously appropriately-named chicshelfpaper.com. They offer repositionable/self-adhesive fabric, paper, coated paper, vinyl, and coated canvas papers in lots and lots of fun prints. (Some are even color-matchable!)  I ordered four free samples in all but canvas, to see what they're like:










So that's where we are.  Plans, plans, plans... and I still haven't revealed my evil closet door ideas. Muah-ha-ha-ha. (This is happening a lot, isn't it?)


*He's spent maybe eight hours, all told, trying to get the blasted things to hang correctly. After that kind of investment, I think he views the wedge-shaped cracks alongside each door as a personal affront.  The wardrobe is a great storage solution (and one that's not easy to find anywhere other than IKEA)... but for The Love Of All That Is Good don't try to put one in a corner with uneven floors/walls/carpet/whatever.