Follow along on this fun Ivar Ikea Hack using Teal and Gold. Ikea is a great furniture source for those who want to customise a furniture project without sacrificing quality. While Ikea is known for manufacturing sustainable materials, they also carry solid wood furniture lines that come unfinished for total customisation.
The Ivar cabinet is perfect for creating a unique piece with tons of storage and endless options for creating the perfect piece for your home.
In this project, you’ll see us create a one of a kind cabinet with modern hairpin legs and a Terrarium, one of the vibrant and rich shades from the Milk Paint by Fusion Line.
SUPPLY LIST:
- Medium Grit Sandpaper
- Zinsser BIN Shellac Primer
- Ikea IVAR cabinet
- Hairpin Legs
- 1×2 strip to close the gap between doors (optional)
- Milk Paint by Fusion Terrarium
- Staalmeester Brush
- Clear Furniture Wax
- Hardware of your choice
Prepping your cabinet
For the most part, these pieces don’t really need much prep. Since they come unfinished, the most you’ll have to do is assembling it and a light sanding to knock down and splinters or rough areas. The Ivar does have a minor gap between the doors, so if that it something you want to correct, all you have to do is add a thin piece of 1×2 trim to fill in the gap, like we did here.
We wanted to add some height to the cabinet since our overall vision was to make this a stand alone piece. One fun and easy way to do this is by adding hairpin legs. These legs come in a variety of sizes which makes customising this piece even more appealing. We wanted the legs to be gold so we sprayed them with two coats of BIN Shellac primer.
Next you can paint them whatever colour you like. We used some leftover gold spray paint we had lying around to update them and let them dry overnight before attaching them to the base.
READY FOR MILK PAINT
The next step is always the most fun in the process: PAINT! Mix up a batch of Terrarium in a 1:1 ratio of milk paint and water. You can always thin with more water if you want more of a washed look, or you can add more milk paint for a chunkier look.
We painted two coats of Terrarium on the cabinet for full coverage. Then we sanded the final coat to knock down any raised fibres or pigments and smoothed it out
Seal with any topcoat in the line that you like. Hemp oil provides a beautiful rich finish with a matte look. For this project, we added clear furniture wax and buffed it to an eggshell sheen.
DESIGN TO YOUR STYLE
Perhaps it’s an even tie as to what’s the most fun part of the process: paint or decorating? Let us know in the comments which is your favourite part?
Once your piece is finished, you can decorate with all the things you love! This Ikea Ivar cabinet now has a vibrant teal colour that pairs beautifully with the hexagon gold leaf knobs we added.
The hairpin legs also tie into the gold elements, but give this piece some height. This piece is so versatile it can function as any storage necessity from a mini-bar to clothing storage. If the legs no longer work for you, these IVAR cabinets were designed to also be wall mounted!
Can you see the endless possibilities you could get when you paint IVAR cabinets with Milk Paint? This Ivar Ikea hack is just a drop in the ocean of what you can do with a little creativity and some milk paint by Fusion!
Let us know what you think about our Ivar Ikea hack in the comments below and if you have upcycled any Ikea pieces pop over to our Facebook group Paint it Beautiful and show off your work.