Ikea Tarva Hack

As I am finishing up our Master Bedroom Refresh I wanted to share an Ikea Hack that I recently completed. Being that we have a very small closet and with the refresh we eliminated a dresser I needed to maximize storage space as much as possible. Most of the nightstands I found were too short, not wide enough and not to mention considerably more than I was willing to spend.

In my hunt for the perfect nightstand I could not find anything that would suit our needs. Then I remembered all the Ikea Hacks I saw on Pinterest. Since I am switching my design from Farmhouse to Minimalist I new the Ikea Tarva 3-drawer chest would be perfect! (after I cut the legs down)

First let me say if I were to do this over again I would have purchased the Ikea Rast. Very similar in design but considerably less expensive.

Step 1: Assemble the dresser. There are many things I am good at, but fully admit putting together furniture is not one of them! That’s where I called in my husband.

My initial plan was to stain the dresser to match our new bed. I stained it Minwax English Chestnut which believe it or not is a very close match, however because of all the wood grain that shows through it doesn’t appear to match.

Plan B: Paint! Many of you know my favorite black is Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black so that is what I painted using their Emerald Line. The dresser was just a tad too tall so I needed to cut down the legs 2″ and then angle them to give it a Mid Century Modern look.

I laid the dresser on it’s back and marked what I needed to cut

After cutting down each leg 2″ I put a scrap piece of wood against the saw plate. I played around with the best angle by rolling the blade against the pencil line. It was around 10 degrees for the angle cut.



The dresser comes with standard wood knobs, but keeping with the modern feel I purchased these Amber Gold bar pulls from Amazon. The best part is they fit exactly in the pre-drilled holes.

I am so happy with how this turned out. When I reveal my Master Bedroom you will see how the black nightstands tie in with the black master vanity and rug.

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