For a while I had this bamboo shelving by the shower for our towels and bath needs:
I always knew I wanted something with more storage here. I looked online for nearly a year for a secondhand cabinet I could transform. It had to have drawers and some shelves, and preferably some glass doors as well. I looked at Craigslist and the marketplace on social media and never found anything I liked.
Enter IKEA…one day I was walking through and found exactly what I wanted. Well, near exact. It checked all of the boxes except for one — the color. I wanted a true black. But I knew I could easily fix that (I was planning to paint a wood piece anyway).
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I thought it would take forever to put together but I was pleasantly surprised. I had it finished in about an hour. I’m getting really good at building those drawers!
We actually quite liked the wood grain. My husband wanted to keep it this finish, but he knows how my brain works and knew I had a vision. 😉
So I taped it off to start the painting process. (I had already secured it to a stud in the wall at the top — I just added one line of painter’s tape along the back so the paint wouldn’t get on the wall.)
I get this question every time I paint — why not paint it all before you put it together?
I never do that because inevitably something will get scratched in the build process. And there are some spots I don’t think need to be painted. I don’t do the backs of drawer fronts for example. I find it much easier to paint when it’s all together. 👍
I primed this piece because I wanted to make sure the paint adhered well. The wood wasn’t super slick to start with so I think it would have held paint directly. But I’ve learned it never hurts to take this extra step:
It’s a very thin primer that is super easy to apply and dries incredibly fast. Because it’s harder to clean up, you have to protect your surfaces well.
I paint the detail areas with a small brush (see above) and then roll on the larger areas:
Because it dries so fast you can move along pretty quickly. I used the same black color as our mud room door for this project, called Tricorn Black.
A foam roller will give you a super smooth finish!:
A quality paint like this will dry down to a beautiful finish.
IKEA sells a dark version of this cabinet (as well as white), but it’s more of a brown/black. I wanted a true dark black for this space.
Once it was dry I was able to put the new hardware on. So pretty!:
Do not fully tighten your hardware for at least a week after painting. It takes a good amount of time to really cure.
My idea to make this cabinet look a little different came from IKEA — they have a white version of this cabinet that has the wood tone inside. I went for that look by leaving the inside the original finish:
I LOVE the two-toned look! All black would have been beautiful but I love warmth that the wood gives.
This cabinet is perfect in this spot and we’re thrilled with the extra storage:
Why does everything look prettier behind glass?:
We already had most of the storage jars (from IKEA) but grabbed a couple more as well.
Isn’t it pretty? I love this project! I’m glad I decided to paint it:
I also ended up adding a battery-operated light from IKEA as well. (This was my husband’s request cause he’s like me when it comes to cool lighting.) I hung it at the top of the cabinet inside.
You can only see the actual fixture when the doors are open (take a look at the pics above). It gives a soft glow that’s even prettier at night:
Since first shared this project, it looks like Ikea now offers a very similar version of my makeover!:
Again, the dark tone is labeled as “black/brown” — so if you want a true black you could probably get away with one coat of paint!
Here’s a view of that area before:
And here’s how it looks now:
Have you ever painted a piece from IKEA? If you use a good primer your possibilities are endless! I love these pieces as they come, but they are so fun to customize as well.
