Ikea Malm Hack

Happy Friday!

A client brought me an Ikea 6 drawer Malm dresser a few weeks ago looking to turn it into a piece of furniture with a nautical feeling that had a little more character for her boys' room. We decided to go with the color Napoleonic Blue by Annie Sloan and add some rope knot pulls from Hobby Lobby. So what do you think? 

As you can see from the before pic this was a laminate dresser with no knobs or pulls, very plain and boring! 

I started by making a template of one of the drawers with my kids craft paper. I marked where I wanted to drill the holes for the knobs and then taped the template onto the front of each drawer, one at a time.

I marked a few measurements on the template, as you can see, but I ended up using 5 1/2 inches from each end.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, painting this beast was a pain! ;) My husband came up with the perfect analogy, it was like washing a black car. Just when you think you've covered every spot you look at it from a different angle or in a different light and see a bunch of spots that you missed! I think I painted it about 4 times. 

One of the reasons using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is so great is the fact that sanding and priming are usually not necessary. But I'm learning that in certain cases a little primer can't hurt!! And from now on when painting laminate I think I'll be starting with primer, just for good measure :)

I was afraid that if I tried to distress my paint job the laminate might come right off too. But I figured if that happened I'd just paint over it again, what's one more time at this point, right? ;)

It ended up distressing just fine. The paint pretty much just peeled off in some places when I ran the sandpaper over it with a bit of pressure. Then I waxed the whole thing with clear wax. 

Here's how it turned out!

The color was a little hard to capture on camera. And I have to mention also that when the sun is shining directly on this color it looks much brighter. Just something you might want to know :)

When I work on pieces for clients I get a little nervous. I want so badly to give them exactly what they're hoping for and then some! So I just have to say a huge thank you to my client, Amanda. She was my first real client and even came back with more work, she's recommended me to her friends and been nothing but delightful to work with. She's always cheered me on and encouraged me to go one step further with my new business. She's been such a blessing to me and I will be forever grateful to her!!

I hope you all have a very blessed Easter!

Linking up to:

Miss Mustard Seed

The Rooster and the Hen

Funky Junk Interiors

Too Much Time on my Hands

Under the Table and Dreaming