Give your IKEA favourites a new lease of life!
Mar 02, 2011All it takes is a dash of imagination, a pinch of personality and a lick of paint to make an IKEA item a one-off collector's piece. Here are my top tips on how to customise your IKEA accessories.
1. Personalise an IKEA magazine holder
You will need: Matt spray varnish; paint for base colour; acrylic paint for patterns; KNUFF magazine files
This design was inspired by a wooden plate I painted for my husband Nick for Valentine’s Day. Instead of the alphabet, I wrote the names of places that were personal to us and also included the mouse as he's a bit of a trademark in my work – he pops up in most of my illustrations!
I painted the magazine file grey on the outside and red on the inside (use untreated files like KNUFF) and then pencilled the alphabet design on top. I then painted blocks of colour around the letters and drew the dotted line in white ink over the grey.
TIP: If you're painting an item of furniture that's going to take a few knocks, it's worth spending time building up a good base for the paint with a decent undercoat. This will ensure your paint job looks great and lasts a lot longer.
2. Decorate IKEA RAM frames
You will need: paint for base colour; acrylic paint for patterns; RAM frames
When I was decorating these picture frames, I thought about what they might eventually be framing – I was thinking of 1950s fabric designs. Each one is painted in a base colour. On top of that, I have painted on a design using a different colour.
TIP: If you want to add a pattern to something but feel unconfident wielding a paint brush, consider printing a design. You can print with anything from the most basic hand-prints to potato prints and rubber stamps.
3. Make a work bench into a fun bench!
You will need: paint for base colour; matt spray varnish; acrylic paint for pattern; white rollerball pen (for white lines on bench top); wood primer; work bench – this one is vintage IKEA, but try using LAIVA
I drew things on the bench top that I thought you might find there. I liked the idea of leaving bits of the natural wood showing through. I chose two colours for the bench’s base coats. The top is grey to look like a slab of slate; the base is white. I decided to draw on the top of the bench rather than add patterns as drawing is natural to me.
TIP: Consider the use of the item and where it is situated. This may determine how you want to customise it. For example, painting or spraying a cupboard door with blackboard paint could make it double as a notice board.
Blog / kate
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