IKEA Rast into Bedside Table Hack

I am so excited to be sharing a new DIY with y’all today! This is a project I have been wanting to do for a while, but wanted to wait until we moved into our new house. Once we moved in, I was ON IT!

Basically, this all started when I was shopping for bedside tables and I realized how expensive they are!

FOR EXAMPLE: Here’s one that I love from Pottery Barn, but at $699, it’s just not realistic for me!

So I wondered if there was a way for me to make similar nightstands myself in an easy way and stumbled across a whole genre in Pinterest of “hacking” cheap IKEA furniture. If you’re like me, you immediately associate IKEA furniture with being cheap and a college staple (you might also think about their meatballs). Sometimes we can associate cheap with being poorly made or using flimsy materials, but IKEA actually has a good amount of pieces that are unfinished and made almost completely out of pine.

One of these pieces that I speak of is the IKEA RAST Chest! It’s only $40 at IKEA and relatively easy to assemble. It’s made almost completely out of pine (besides the very back that you don’t see which is plywood). If you don’t have an IKEA nearby, and for whatever reason shipping cost you an arm and a leg, you can get it on Amazon but it is a little under $75. So I would try and get it from IKEA if you can!

There are hundreds of “RAST hacks” on Pinterest, but I compiled my favorite parts of a bunch to make my own. I have never done one of these DIY projects on my own without the help of my handy dad, but I managed to do this one by myself without much trouble!

For a pair of bedside tables, here is what you will want:

Supplies:

• 2– IKEA RAST 3-drawer chest kits
• 12– 3/8-in x 2-in x 3 ft pine boards (I found mine at Lowe’s–had trouble finding the size I needed at Home Depot)
• Table saw
• Wood glue (I really like the Gorilla Glue brand)
• Wood filler
  (optional: putty knife to apply wood filler)
• Mouse sander
• Minwax Wood Stain (I used the color Provincial)
  
• Rag that you don’t mind destroying
• Drill/Driver
• 12 – cup drawer pull knobs (here’s two other options that I like from Amazon: here and here)
• Drawer liner– I used this one, but I like this one a lot too
• X-Acto knife

 

So naturally, I started off at IKEA and found 2 RAST chests (I just can’t get over how cheap they are!).

Then I tracked down the project board I needed at Lowe’s (this took a little bit of searching!). Side note: I have only been able to find this size at Lowe’s. I looked at Home Depot and they don’t seem to have it at my local store.

Once I assembled all of my supplies, I headed home and assembled the chest according to the IKEA instructions.

Then I started on my pine boards to cut that outline the front of each of the drawers. I cut 12 long pieces to be ~12 5/8 inches long and 12 short pieces to be ~6 inches long (but I would measure yourself, just to be safe!)

I then used my wood glue to secure each piece on the drawer. You SHOULD use small nails to also secure the boards onto the drawers but I didn’t most of the time because I’m lazy (unless a board was particularly warped). I removed the nails once my glue was dry.

Because nobody’s perfect and wood isn’t cut perfect, you will have some little gaps in between the pieces that you will want to fill with wood filler.

I suppose you should apply wood filler with a putty knife, but tbh it’s okay to be a little sloppy with food filler. You’re going to sand it out anyway, and you kind of want to overfill when you apply it. I found success using a piece of scrap wood to apply it and smooth it out (#innovation).

You’ll want to follow the instructions on how long to let it dry (I let mine set overnight).

Once you’ve given the wood filler appropriate time to dry, you’ll break out your mouse sander. I made sure to not only sand out the imperfections from the wood filler, but to also sand all over the craft pine boards that were applied and soften the sharp edges a bit.

Then it’s time to stain (my favorite part!).

Like I said before, I used Minwax wood stain in the color Provincial. We recently ordered a custom headboard in the dark walnut color and I think the two stains will compliment each other really nicely in our bedroom!

I’m sure everyone has their own method to staining, but I like to use an old rag that I’m okay with being thrown out after. I wear gloves when I stain and dip the rag into the stain and just apply it evenly all over. I find that the rag applies the stain most evenly and doesn’t leave any heavy spots of stain.

I gave everything plenty of time to dry before I added the final touches.

I’m sure there is a very official way to measure out where to install the knobs, but I figured out my own method. I used the pre-existing holes in the wood as my reference point and made my cup pulls to be centered over them. So I measured it out and used a sticky note to be able to know the correct distance between the holes I was drilling and so that my cup pulls would be perfectly centered over each hole.

I used my drill to make holes with the 5/32 bit and then used the screws that were included with my cup pulls to secure the knobs.

Lastly, I added drawer liners. The one I used was no-adhesive, so I glued it down, but you can easily find one that is adhesive to avoid gluing it down. I used an x-acto knife to cut mine to make sure it was the right size in the drawer.

And that’s it! In a weekend, you can have two beautiful new night stands that you can essentially customize to the colors you like.

 

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