i tried to remember to take tons of photos of the entire process--some details of the construction, some just for fun, some oops! so now i can share more details about some of the parts of the room.
because we had a very specific sized space to fill with dressers, and a very specific budget to stick to, it was a bit challenging.
adding to the challenge was this:
so unless we found a way to get over top the baseboard the dresser would have a few inch gap between it and the wall. not cool in a house of little kids--who will use any tiny space to shove things.
jeremy built this frame to lift the dressers a couple of inches, allowing them to go all the way to the wall. (we also wouldn’t have been able to fit these 3 dressers without using all the space from wall to wall)
all the dressers are screwed to one another, into the bottom frame, and into the studs of the wall next to it. they could open all the drawers and stand in them and the thing wouldn’t move an inch. (their parents might kill them, though)
we do lose the bottom left hand drawer because of the heater cover, but raising the dressers up any higher just didn’t seem practical.
we initially weren’t thrilled with the idea of using “malm” dressers. the contemporary handle-less look of them didn’t jive with the plan for the room.
but then we tried out the idea of adding handles…and boom!
it changed the whole look of the dresser. for $1 each they make a world of difference.
i gave the two bigger girls three drawers, and the two little girls got two drawers. and then one drawer is hair things and jewelry.
they also have a metal drawer unit in the closet for stockings and underthings, and lots of hanging space. so this is mainly for jammies, pants, and t-shirts.
i really, really love the look this dresser has--way more than i expected to. it's so clean looking, but has a big impact!
thanks for reading!
I LOVE built ins! I think we painted our daughters rooms the exact same color:)
ReplyDeleteBalmy seas by behr??
Deletenot a color I ever imagined picking for a girls room, but I love it!
Amazing. That is all.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Do you read Vintage Revivals? She's having this link party where you link up your blog crush and list why you love it. I linked you. Just thought you should know.
soooo...not a secret crush I guess? ;)
ReplyDeletethanks! and thanks!
A great solution to the heater. I have the same problem but with a hubby who "loses" things in all kinds of places! Gotta say again that I love the wall color. I just painted my bathroom a very similar color. I used Ocean Kiss by Behr. Love it!
ReplyDeleteocean kiss...balmy seas... Same difference I guess! ;)
ReplyDeletethese look incredible. great job.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of putting knobs on the Malm dresser. I've been debating on whether to get rid of mine and find a softer alternative so I'm going to have to try it. Did you have any issues drilling a hole into the front panel?
ReplyDeletenope, none at all! and it definitely changes the look big time! :)
DeleteGorgeous remodel!!! Does covering that portion of the heater cause any issues? We have the same baseboards in every room of our house (ick!) and they are so hard to work around!
ReplyDeleteHey thanks for replying with this link! Totally answered my question.
ReplyDeleteAaand, yeah, because of the gap between my two malm dressers and the gab between them and the wall, things get shoved/thrown where they'll never be seen again. Glad to hear it's not just my son who uses any tiny space to shove things. :/
(True story: The other day, he opened the child-proof drawer where the camera is, removed the camera battery - the thin square kind - and when I asked him where he put it, he said "oven". But I didn't see it inside the oven, or in the bottom oven drawer, or under the oven. Only place left? That space between the stove top and the oven where the heating coils are. I was so. so. mad. I actually cried. Haha. Thankfully, he later pointed to it under the oven. I just hadn't seen it before when I looked. Phew!!)
I love the way these look, and I'm going to totally copy you! We just moved, and our old dressers look awful in the new space.
ReplyDeleteHow did you screw the dressers together? What kind of knobs do you recommend? Thanks so much for sharing your idea!
he just ran a screw inside the dressers--one long enough to grab onto the neighboring dresser but no so long it pops out the other side.
Deleteas for knobs, because we needed so many we just bought what was cheap and the right color! 98 cents a piece at lowes!
how did you do the top? did you just put a glass top on all three dressers? do you see the cracks of each dresser from top view?
ReplyDeletewe didn't do anything to the top. if you look at it you can see the breaks between the dressers. but they are screwed to each other tightly so it's not hardly noticeable.
ReplyDeletethanks for reading!
Thanks Shannon for the comfirmation! I am trying to put two together but trying to deal with the "breaks" but your ikea hack is freaking awesome! Well Done!
ReplyDeleteDid you consider cutting the corner of the bottom left drawer? Would be a pretty simple fix and you would gain another drawer. You would have to cut the face of the drawer and create an angle within the drawer itself, but you'd be able to open and close it.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I've been trying to figure out how to get more storage space in my small kitchen, but don't want to spend a fortune on custom cabinets. As I looked at your built in, and then across the room at my exact same dressers, I realized they are the perfect counter height and I love deep drawers in a kitchen because it holds so much more than cabinets, particularly pots and pans. This gives me the perfect excuse to switch my four drawer dressers for the tall six drawer dressers, too! So glad I found your hack on ikeahackers.net.
ReplyDelete