All it took was one hour, $40 worth of burl wood contact paper and new handles, and this easy IKEA hack became a whole new statement piece in my bedroom!
I’ve had this dresser for eight years now, and for an affordable piece from IKEA, it’s really served me well. But it just wasn’t sparking joy any more. One day when I was laying on my bed after a shower, just thinking about life, I had an Aha moment. Burl wood! Contact paper! Burl wood contact paper! Burl wood contact paper on my old dresser! And here we are. If you’re looking for an easy IKEA hack, this is it, baby.
The original dresser: IKEA Brimnes $129
As you can see from the top photo, I previously added some white marble contact paper over the top drawer’s middle panel. Brimnes comes with a frosted glass panel that seemed cool in theory but in reality just screamed: LOOK AT MY PERIOD UNDERWEAR!
The inspiration: Burl wood dressers
This dresser was lovingly thrifted by one of my favorite bloggers in the world: Goldalamode. She’s such a good follow if you love interior design and general wellness/being a good human.
Source: Goldalamode
Burl wood is the result of harvesting a tree that has knobby areas. Those areas are called “burls” and they make such a beautiful, visually interesting pattern.
Trust me when I say I’ve scoured good old Facebook Marketplace for a burl wood dresser of my own, but I haven’t found anything. Plus, I truly do believe in repurposing a piece of furniture rather than just ditching it for something shiny and new whenever the mood strikes. I’m not on any high horse; I just think with a little creativity we don’t always need to buy new.
The materials + How to:
All you need to make this happen is:
- The dresser you want to makeover (squared-off edges and lack of bezels helps make it easier)
- Zip Tac burl wood contact paper ($8 per roll, I used three rolls)
- An X-acto knife for trimming the edges ($6)
- A credit card to smooth out air bubbles (I used a smoother from a previous wall graphic project)
- New handles if you want them. Mine were $8 for a set of 6
- A Phillips screwdriver to install your handles
My total spend: $38
Step 1: Clean and prep
This is my least favorite part, but if you’re using contact paper it’s a must that your surface be clean, dust-free, and dry. Bust out the duster, some wet wipes, whatever it takes. Pull your dresser away from the wall so you can get in the nooks and crannies. Remove the handles from the drawers. You can put them back on later or replace them entirely like I did.
Step 2: Start covering!
If your dresser will have a less visible side like mine does (it’s in a corner of my bedroom), start on that side to get the hang of the contact paper. I also found the vertical panels to be the easiest of all, because I was able to use gravity to help reduce air bubbles/creases.
Peel just a little bit of contact paper away from the backing, secure it to the top of the dresser side panel, and start gently rolling away the backing paper as you go down. Smooth as you go with your credit card or smoother, but don’t push against the roll because you’ll make a crease line. Don’t be afraid to re-position the paper to get it perfect. I don’t have a photo of this process because I did it all by my damn self.
When you’re done, give the whole panel another smoothing.
One panel done! You can see how forgiving and visually interesting the burl wood pattern is. Even if you didn’t get it straight or even, who can tell?!
Use your smoother to tightly wrap the contact paper around the panel’s edge toward the drawer. You don’t want any wrinkles at the edges.
Step 3: Trim excess
Trim the excess where it makes sense for your dresser. I wrapped all the way around the edge of this panel and still had about an inch leftover, so I slowly drug my X-acto knife in a straight line down around each drawer.
Step 4: Make decisions about what to cover and what to highlight
You can see in the photo above that my dresser had raised wood panels, but my end result looks like a flat panel. It’s not that deep: I just papered right over that middle section. It made the job waaaaaay easier, and I think it gives the dresser a more modern, streamlined look. You make your own choices about what to cover and what to highlight.
Continue going around the drawer, following the natural separations of the panels themselves (top, side, drawers). I didn’t even for a second worry about making the pattern match between panels. The randomness is part of the visual interest!
Step 5: Install new handles!
The handles were the black, matte cherry on top of this project for me. Before I ordered them, I measured the existing holes from center to center and typed in that measurement when I was shopping (it was 6.5″ center to center). Buying, waiting for, and then opening handles that don’t fit is a bummer you don’t need in your life. So measure first.
Before screwing the handles into place, I gently pushed a screw through the contact paper where the existing holes were, just to prime to hole and the paper so that no tears got started. You’ll likely have a handle that comes with a set of screws. Hold the handle in line with the holes and screw in the screws from the opposite side.
That’s it!
This whole process took me about an hour total and I did it all by myself. Well, besides the time the dresser tipped over and trapped me. I yelled HELP! to Andy for that one. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen to you.
If you try this DIY, I’d love to see the results! Tag me on social!
