Romantic Fira mini chest makeover

Materials: 2 Fira mini chests, 12 knobs, paint, glue, wallpaper, pencil, ruler, scissors, drill and paintbrush

Description: I started out with two Fira mini chests. One plain and one had a makeover some years ago with blue paint and white plastic knobs. Now I wanted to make them fit together with identical makeovers.

I started with white painting both chests. (not the drawers) and removing the white plastic knobs from the blue chest.

Then I used the ruler and pencil to draw lines across each drawer in a cross, then it was easy to know where to drill the holes.

Holes were made, I had to redo the ones of the blue drawers as well because the screws of the new knobs were a bit bigger.

The knobs are simple wooden knobs also from IKEA. I painted them with gold paint.

Then I layed out the wallpaper (it is vintage) and placed all 12 drawers on it, and circled each drawer with pencil.

I was careful to put matching numbers from 1 to 12 on each wallpaper square and each matching drawer to make the puzzle easier.

Then I used a small brush to put glue on each drawer and pressed the wallpaper on, so I had to wait for it to dry.

Finally I attached the knobs. Be careful when pushing though the wallpaper so it doesn't rip.

And then I just had to replace the drawers. Quite happy with the result :)

See more of the double Fira makeover.

~ Mie (Theresa Marie Sperre), Bergen, Norway

Fira Chest Makeover

Materials: Fira Chest, knobs, paint, paper, sandpaper

Description: I sanded it first then applied a white wash of acrylic and water. Then I drilled holes in four of the drawers for the knobs. I pasted some paper on the drawer fronts, which I wasn't really happy with. I painted them with a mixture of blue acrylics, which I changed for each drawer and sanded the paper away. I added the knobs and then brushed some black pigment ink over the whole thing.

I did the same thing to two magazine holders I had bought as well. I think I'm happy with the result, although I change my mind so often they may get made over again:)

See more of the Fira chest makeover.

~ Sarah Jane, Ireland

Fira & Trofast help in the Kitchen

Materials: Fira drawer, saw, chopsticks, glue, screws, 2 Trofast with Lid

Description: I had a (non-IKEA) sideboard that I used to have in my room for books and stuff when I shared my flat with a friend. When my boyfriend moved in I put it in the kitchen, because with two (kitchen-) households I needed more space for all our cooking utensils. So I put the sideboard in the kitchen.

Fortunately two Trofast baskets fitted in the sideboard when you put them next to each other, so they became my "drawers" for all my plastic food-storage boxes and some kitchen utensils. So far not really a hack.

In the middle part of the sideboard I decided to put the pots, because it was quite a deep sideboard and so they fitted in without standing over.

All I needed now was a tray for the forks and knifes and so I decided to build one myself from my old Fira, that I didn't use any more. I simply took the two big drawers on the side and a small one in the middle. I screwed them together and put the first shelf of the sideboard fairly high up, so that my tray could rest on it. For the divisions I simply sawed some wooden chopsticks to the size I needed and glued them to the tray. I didnt use knobs, because the little fira-drawer, that I put in the middle, has this little deepening, which can be used as knob. Voila.

~ Celine, Germany

Upscale Wood Cubbies

Materials: Moppe or Fira Wooden Box Set

Description: I base coated the cabinet and drawers with a spray paint. Then I taped all of the drawers together to treat them as one large surface, then stenciled and painted them. I finished off with some gilding to give it a more Oriental feel and upscale it a bit!

See more of the Moppe upcycle.

~ CraftTestDummies, Clevelandish

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Happy Malaysia Day to all my Malaysian readers. And here's a special just for you.

Redo of a jewelry drawer hack

Materials: Fira

Description:
I got the idea from the jewelry drawer hack. You can find pictures at my blog, and then the final results.

~ Elisa

Chest of Dreams

Materials: Fira Boxes, legs, etc.

Description: For two different classrooms, I did an auction item called a Chest of Dreams. I interviewed each of the kids to find out what they were interested in when they grew up and created a box for each of them. The item did really well in the auction and here is the finished product.

I added legs, painted the finished product black, decoupaged each of the drawers, found unique knobs, added some detail and voila. Great auction item, although the Fira boxes are no longer available.... ;-(

~ Lise-Marie Wertanzl