Ikea Tarva Hack – my new night stands
We have been in the market for some new night stands for, well, ever. We had been using the same mismatched hand me down pair from my parents that I have repainted no less than 36 times since we we got married. I woke up this past weekend and just couldn’t handle it for one more minute! Luckily we were headed to the east side of the state to visit friends so I talked the Mr. into swinging by Ikea – just to look around (bah ha ha ha insert my evil laugh here…)
Unfortunately we weren’t finding any night stands we liked so we decided to cruise the rest of the furniture just for fun, when we happened upon the Tarva dresser (you can find it here on Ikea).
Did you guys see the fun contest that BHG just ran with some of my favorite bloggers where they had them makeover a Tarva dresser? They had such fun ideas and I loved the way they turned out. I pointed them out to the Mr. and told him all about the contest. I thought his eyes were glazing over with all the decor talk, but apparently he was actually listening because he said
“why don’t you just cut the legs off and make them into nightstands for us?”
Wait, what? Did the Mr. just suggest a DIY project?! I know, I’m rubbing off on him :)
We took a closer look, measured, and realized we wouldn’t need to actually cut off the legs, we could just leave them off along with about a 2 inch apron on the front. That brought it down to the perfect size for night stands and I could hardly wait to get these things home and figure out what I wanted to do to them.
I decided I wanted to keep some of the natural wood showing, so I applied a coat of wood conditioner. Then  I stained the drawers, first with a coat of Weathered Grey stain by Rustoleum and then went over them again with Early American by Minwax (I just had both these stains on hand). This gave me the perfect beachy driftwood color I was going for.
Next I glued white moulding around the edge of each drawer and painted the top and sides Silent White by Clark+Kensington. I picked up some half off hardware at Hobby Lobby and was good to go!
Until I realized that our heating vents were now trapped underneath the new nightstands…yeah, I pretty much made a warming drawer for my underwear and the rest of the bedroom was freezing…
So I headed to the hardware store and picked up a couple sets of wheels. I sprayed painted them oil rubbed bronze and screwed them on the bottom. Perfect, that lifted the night stands just enough to let the air pass under, but not too high to make them look weird with our bed.
Speaking of bed, you may notice a sneak peek at our new (to us) bed in here. It was in the downstairs guest room and I swapped out my DIY Upholstered Bed with this one for a change. And yes, I’ve been hiding the fact that I have a guest room, because basically it’s just a dumping ground for all my unwanted decor and throw pillow collection… I’m not showing the full reveal yet, because I’m building a headboard for it as we speak…
and now you are thinking wait a minute, aren’t you supposed to be sharing your living room redo sometime soon? And weren’t you in the middle of redoing your daughter’s room too? Yes, and yes…sigh still waiting on the tile guy to come finish my fireplace so I can show you the living room. And I’m still working on finding the perfect finishing touches for my girlie’s room, so naturally it’s an excellent time to overhaul the master bedroom too…
Am I driving you nuts yet? I’m hoping to get the decorating ADD under control soon and reveal all the new rooms, which basically at this point is my whole house! So stay tuned…
In the mean time I’m excited about the changes in our room and I think the night stands go perfect with my chalk painted lamps. Oh and there are 2, I made one for the Mr. too but his isn’t done yet because Hobby Lobby ran out of the hardware I used…
I hope all you mom’s out there have a great Mother’s Day weekend, and if you missed my post yesterday – check it out and give yourself a pat on the back :)
This is beautiful! I love how it turned out!
It looks amazing Kelly!! I love that you kept some of the wood tones. I don’t know how you manage to have so many projects on the go but you always manage to pull it off! xo
Gah!! I have lazily been surfing around Pinterest tonight, and I just found THIS AH-MAZING DRESSER there… and I tracked it back to your blog… and now I’m not getting a dadgum thing done at my house, because listen: I have taken your house tour… I’ve read all about you… I’ve looked at numerous posts you’ve put up… and all of that makes me sound like I might be a crazy blog stalker, but that’s just simply NOT the case. I have a teenage boy and a two-year-old boy, and between driving the thirteen-year-old everywhere and cleaning up the toddler’s messes, I just don’t have time to be a crazy blog stalker! But I will tell you this: Jesus did NOT give me the spiritual gift of decorating… and I LOVE and also ADORE your decorating style… so I’ve decided that I should just invite you over for coffee some morning. And when we’re done sitting at my dining room table, sipping hot beverages, you can just tell me, “Do you know what? Let’s redecorate YOUR house! I want you to throw THIS rug away… and I want you buy THIS rug instead, and it’s all going to look fantastic together, because I’m a professional and I know what I’m doing!” And then I would take ALL of your advice, because sweet mercy! Your house is darling! Happy Mother’s Day!
Ok first – Jedi Mama = best name ever, 2nd – yes we should def be friends or mutual crazy blog stalkers? Just read your blog and was giggling like a crazy person…3rd – after reading about your little dude and his toilet adventures we need to keep our kids away from each other because they could probably rob a bank together if left to their own devices…4th – I’m not sure we would ever get to redecorating your house because we would be too busy laughing :)
Well… I guess it’s settled then. We’ll just be new BFFs, and our toddlers will corrupt one another. On the plus side, the dollars they steal from the bank together can totally be put toward Pottery Barn rugs and all-things-Target!!
I like the way you think…
So beautiful! Such a gorgeous hack – I love the white and wood-tone mix!
Thanks Sarah! I was so excited they turned out like they looked in my head – which is not always the case… ha
Wow, it looks so good!! We just redid the large 6-drawer tarva for my boys room (stained front, navy frame, brushed nickel cup pulls) and I can’t get over how good it looks. I love looking at tarva hacks — it’s an amazing and versatile piece of furniture. Yours looks so beautiful, we may do the same for our night stands as well!!
Hi Candace, love the sounds of your tarva hack! It’s kind of addicting to redo them right? I’m still dreaming of ideas for more :)
Beautiful!
Thanks mom!
Girl! I LOVE these in a big fat way! Good job, they are perfect!
Thanks Rebecca!! I was pretty crazy thrilled when I was done with them too ha :)
Oh my word..these turned out amazing Kelly! I NEED to get to an Ikea!!
Thanks girl, yes a trip to Ikea is always in order :)
Don’t worry I have the same condition – ADD decorating! Right now I have a double dresser right in the middle of the living room that I’m painting in chalk paint. Other projects in the basement and office and still haven’t finished the sunroom – painting and floor…. Anyway, LOVE these little nightstands. Beachy and chic. Yay!
OH glad to hear my brain isn’t the only one that bounced around from room to room and project to project :)
These are perfect! I might have to steal your idea!! What was the overall height of these when done?
hey Molly, they are about 30 inches tall.
Love, love, love this, Kelly!! You can’t even tell it’s the same dresser! And it looks perfect in your bedroom! :)
yayyy!!! I LOVE these! Those wheels are absolute perfection!
Beautiful job Kelly! They look SO perfect for you room! I quite enjoy your decorating ADD. Makes me feel more normal. :) Happy Mother’s Day weekend cutie!
xx
Oh Kelly – I must know where your beautiful lamps are from! I adore the look of the wood on the nightstand… just love the entire look… Beautiful!
Hey Brandi, I picked them up at HomeGoods! I’ve seen them there a few times so hopefully you have luck finding something similar.
Those night stands look amazing! Such an awesome hack. Your decorating ADD reminds me of…well…me. I always have a million projects on the brain at one time.
I need to have at least 6 projects going on at once, somehow it keeps me sane…or relatively :)
I know how you feel, however none of mine ever seem to get completely done. I still have picture frames hanging on my gallery wall that don’t have pictures in them. :P
I am in looooove with these nighstands! So ecited to see this hack!
Thanks Lisa! So excited to have real matching night stands now.
These are super cute! Now contemplating the same hack for our room!
Go for it, it was so easy!
Beautiful! I love how the stain turned out!
This totally makes me want to pick one (or two) up for my boys’ bedrooms.
An IKEA trip is in order… they need to get one on this side of the state STAT.
These would be perfect for a kids room, I kind of want a few more for all over the house…
These look great! Also, yesterdays post was awesome – happy Mother’s Day!
Thanks so much Melissa, hope you had a great day today!
I have total decorating ADD. All the time. Love how these came out, especially with the little wheels – definitely a happy accident there!
Love happy accidents, thanks girl!