The Rast Hack

For awhile now, we've been planning/working on a hack for a fairly unremarkable ikea dresser, the Rast. The Rast is an unfinished pine three drawer dresser. But for $35, I was sure we could make something beautiful with such a nice plain canvas. I wanted to incorporate the wood-burning technique that I used in a previous mini-project of mine, the rustic stool. So after picking up our plain-jane dresser, we first used a propane torch to burn the wood. This essentially reverses the grain, with the wood grain remaining somewhat light while turning the solid spaces a dark black.

We then sanded the excess char off the pieces and then added two coats of a high-gloss polyurethane stain combo in a nice red-brown color, making sure to sand between coats.

We then used a semi-gloss white paint and painted the front of the dresser drawers a bright white in order to tie into the modern white furniture in our main living space. I threw out the included wood knobs (man, they were ugly!) and instead found these lovely knobs at the affordable price of $1 each

So using some elbow grease and ingenuity, Isaac and I were able to take this

And turn it into this

All in all, I am very pleased about how the project turned out. The pictures hardly do it justice, but it looks like a piece from a high-end boutique. This will serve to hide all of our craft items that currently sit in big Rubbermaid containers in our front room. Sometime in the near future, I intend on purchasing a mate for this lonely piece and repeating the process.