Harold's Renovation Blog: Ivar Cabinet

A bold blue makeover of the IVAR cabinet.

I absolutely love the IVAR range – there is so much room to customise and be creative!

After painting a bold blue stripe around my bedroom wall I decided to integrate the cabinet into the room design by painting it too.

I actually really like the look of the natural wood, so I only painted the doors, and left the rest of the pine on show. I added gold handles and feet to give an elegant and quality finish.

Materials needed:

IKEA IVAR Cabinet, 80 x 30 x 83cm
4x metal hairpin legs
Gold spray paint
2x gold metal handles
Paint

Tools:

Electric drill
Screwdriver
Paintbrush

Instructions for IVAR cabinet makeover:

Assemble the IVAR cabinet. This is very straightforward (even by IKEA’s standards!) and will go even quicker if you use an electric screwdriver head on your hand drill.

Spray-paint the hairpin legs in gold. Make sure that you are in a well ventilated area, spraying at least two coats on each leg.

Attach the legs to the cabinet. Mark out in pencil where the screws will need to go, and drill securely into place.

Be careful to use screws of an appropriate length and thickness – you don’t want their sharp ends poking through into the inside of the cabinet!

Ivar Cabinet

N.B. Set the legs flush with the corners of the cabinet. If you set them too far inwards then there is a risk that the cabinet will not be balanced and fall forwards.

Mark out where to put the handles, and drill holes for the metal rods to fit snugly – there is no room for error here so check and check again that they are level and evenly spaced.

Ivar Cabinet

Top tip: If your handles are a little wonky even after careful measuring, it may be due to the hang of the doors. You can adjust this by loosening the tightness of the hinges.

Paint the doors. I just used a standard wall emulsion for this, the same as I used on the wall behind. I did not use a primer and I didn’t treat it afterwards, and so far it has remained in perfect condition. However, if it were in a more high-traffic area of the house I would have painted a topcoat on for some extra durability.

Ivar Cabinet