IKEA HEMNES dresser refreshed with tropical wallpaper

A rather tired and old looking IKEA Hemnes dresser was given a fresh tropical makeover with wallpaper.

IKEA product: 
Other Products used:  

My neighbour threw out an old IKEA HEMNES chest of drawers. I decided to rescue the piece and give it a fresh update.  

Here’s how it was before.

IKEA HEMNES chest of drawers

How to makeover the HEMNES dresser with wallpaper

1. First, I wiped down the whole piece to remove any dirt and dust.

2. Next, I removed the drawers and gave the frame a fresh coat of chalk paint in Oxford Navy.

IKEA HEMNES dresser makeover with wallpaper and paint

3. When the paint dried, I coated the frame with a layer of furniture wax to protect it.

4. Next, I painted the new wooden knobs for the drawers with the same chalk paint.

wooden knobs

5. Next, the drawer fronts. They weren’t painted but covered in gorgeous tropical print wallpaper. I took extra care to make sure that the patterned print on the wallpaper matched across all three of the drawer fronts.

IKEA HEMNES dresser makeover with wallpaper and paint

6.  To finish, I added new knobs to the drawer fronts.

IKEA HEMNES dresser makeover with wallpaper and paint

I love how bright and fun the updated chest of drawers look now.  It is certainly a statement piece.  Now the neighbours have seen what we did with their old piece of IKEA furniture, they want it back!

IKEA HEMNES dresser makeover with wallpaper and paint

This was a very affordable IKEA hack. I needed only a small amount of chalk paint for the frame and the wallpaper only cost about $20 for the whole roll.  There is plenty of paper left over for matching furniture upcycles.

See the full tutorial of the HEMNES makeover on my blog.

~ by Claire

Jules Yap