Meet the
Ikea Micke desk:
At $79 Micke is a bargain, but he doesn't have a whole lot of personality. With a $3 bottle of sample paint from Home Depot and $9 worth of Anthropologie knobs, I sought to change that. I was inspired by this
Fred Shand Garden Stretch Bolster pillow that I have on my bed (also from Anthropologie, surprise):
The last picture gives you an idea as to how long this sucker is. It is a huge pillow and it is longer than the width of my full size bed. Anthro describes the pillow as "a long and lean plot of colorful foliates and berry-red stripes." That berry red is what I wanted for my desk!
Here's old Micke back in my old house:
A perfectly sized sewing machine cabinet!
Paired with a vintage chair, reupholstered with blue fabric from my old headboard.
This is back when I was content with him being his dry, boring Ikea self. (Sorry, Micke.)
So my first step in Micke's transformation was to put on a mask, drag him outside, and get sanding. Oh wait, no, I didn't. I'm too lazy. I sandpapered him right in my bedroom. Without a mask. But you shouldn't be lazy like me! So take your desk outside and wear your mask.
I used whatever sandpaper I had handy in the back of my car. You have to be a little careful because a lot of Ikea furniture is not solid wood. Micke certainly isn't. He is cheap, cheap, cheap. So when you sand MDF (
medium-density fiberboard), you aren't sanding wood at all. You're sanding of pieces of...stuff. I just wanted to rough up the Stuff that Micke is made of so the paint would adhere to it. This step could be optional, you could always try it out and see how it works for you.
Next I got to painting. I didn't even tape. Boy oh boy, am I lazy. But Micke's surface is so smooth, I just used a wet cloth to wipe off any paint spills. I'll have to get back to you on the exact color I used. It was salmon or coral something or other by Behr. I'll update this space later with the exact name.
Oh! But first, I painted it another color. A very pastel pink.
The yellow chair halfway to the wrong pink. And then I got to painting the correct color! So technically I spent $6 for paint on this project (2 x $3 samples).
Much better!
Now it's all done being painted. All that's left is to add the knobs (one power drill later...).
Ta-da! And it matches the pillow, which is way over on the bed, so well. If I had any energy left (when did I get so lazy?!) I might paint the chair a different color, because it is a little matchy-matchy. The desk area needs some work on organization, and I don't care for that lamp at all, but it's getting better. And now I can hardly recognize our friend Micke! We might have to stop referring to him as a boy. Wait, that's sexist. Boys can be pink!
P.S. Here are some close-ups of the knobs I used (the
Verawood knobs in white):
They received poor reviews online, and that is probably why they're on sale, but I think they're great.
