Beautify an IKEA Malm Dresser With Decoupage Technique

I own one of these black Ikea Malm Dressers. At the time when I bought it, I thought it's a great idea to buy a black one, but by now I really dislike the color. It appears so heavy and I don't want to put it in my living room where it would look like a black hole sucking out all the positive energy from the atmosphere :).

Apart from that, it looks very ordinary, since every second person I know, owns one of them :).

So I decided to beautify it. I recently read about the decoupage technique for picture frames, so I thought I give it a go for my dresser.

I thought for a long time, how it should look like afterwards. First, I wanted to use fabric, but then I thought it's a waste of fabric and it might not look so nice. I also read, that it's easier with paper than fabric. So paper was it. However, it took me a while to decide what sort of paper. I thought of music sheets, but that might look boring very quickly, so I finally decided for an old book. It will give it an interesting look and - at the same time- make it more "vintage" like because the book pages already started yellowing.

It turned out so cool, I am more than happy to share it here!

You don't need much for this beauty treatment:

• An old dresser
• An old book (preferably with old font and yellowing pages)
• A paper cutter
• White paper glue mixed with 20% water (or - if you are lucky and from the US or Canada - mod podge)
• A bowl or something to pour the glue into
• A brush

If you also like to add new handles you need the following extra things:

• Matching handles for the drawers
• A drilling machine
• A little piece of wood to drill into (see later steps)

The nice thing about this technique is, that you don't have to do much preparation. After wiping the surfaces with a wet cloth, you are ready to go!

• Cut the book pages in pieces (I made a few different shapes, so it looks more interesting once it's finished)
• Prepare piles of your book pieces so they are ready when your fingers are sticky and full of glue :)
• Spread the glue-water mix onto the drawer surface
• Add the paper pieces onto it (in my experience it looks nicer, when the pieces are distributed randomly BUT all more or less perpendicular / parallel to each other (no diagonal pieces) because it looks more ordered.
• Cover the whole surface with paper
• Add another continous layer of glue

Once all of the drawers are covered in paper, let them dry for at least 12 hours. Then you can add more layers of glue. After each layer you should wait at least 2 hours. Then you can add the next one. I added 3-4 more layers.

For the drawers where I had diagonal pieces, I first added another layer of paper and then added the covering glue layers.

The more glue layers you add, the more homogeneous the drawer surfaces will look like. It's worth it!

• Once you decided that there are enough glue layers let it dry for another 2 hours.
• Then, you can cut away the overlapping paper, that is not perfectly aligned to the edges of the drawer. It goes off quite easily once its really dry.
• Now measure the middle points of the upper two drawers.
• When that is done, you can use a string attached to something heavy as a perpendicular for the remaining holes in the lower drawers.

To drill the holes, it's highly recommended to attach a little wooden board to the backside of the drawer surface, so the drilled hole will not fray.

Once all the holes are drilled, you can attach the handle and enjoy the new, fancy, individualized, beautified dresser!