How to Fix Chipped Ikea Furniture

This IKEA article of furniture repair project is all about fixing flat-pack furniture—FAST! Likewise as being quick, it'due south affordable, totally mess-free and will extend the life of your IKEA piece while giving it new rattan inspired fashion and flair. All in less than 15 minutes!

IKEA: The good, the bad and the (sometimes) ugly

Few would argue the fact that IKEA piece of furniture is affordable and convenient. The assemble-it-yourself method keeps prices down and makes flat-pack kits easy to ship in the boilerplate family car.

Just a big gene in the affordability of IKEA furniture is what you lot don't get: solid wood.

A lot of IKEA furniture is made from engineered forest or particle lath. Engineered wood is made from layers of fast-growth, lower-class woods glued together. Particle lath is made bymixing woods particles with glue.

Cantankerous sections of engineered woods used in IKEA products. Source: Ikeacocreation.com

All this, IKEA claims, adds up to more sustainability and we like the sound of that. Still, the question remains: Tin a depression-toll, loftier-volume, mass-consumption business model actually be eco friendly?

That's why nosotros're passionate about turning flat-pack piece of furniture into forever furniture.

Some IKEA items (such as Kallax) utilise a honeycomb construction method. All that air inside your Kallax unit is what makes information technology inexpensive and (hallelujah) light to lug when you move business firm for the billionth time.

Even so, one of the downsides of this type of construction is that adding legs, handles or hooks is difficult.A thin layer of plastic laminate is bonded to the outer board while the insides are predominantly, well, air. Another is that all that internal space makes repairing IKEA piece of furniture rather challenging.

When solid wood furniture suffers a scratch or dent information technology tin exist filled, sanded and refinished. In some cases, a few marks may fifty-fifty add grapheme. (Shabby chic, anyone?) Non then with a beaten up Besta or mauled Malm— scratches and peeling laminate wait plainly shabby.

This is the sad reason so much fast furniture ends up in landfill. The pieces may be perfectly functional, but never brand old age thanks to cosmetic dings and dents. All of which begs the question:

What can we do to extend the life and looks of flat-pack piece of furniture?

Your flat-pack repair options

Firstly, it's non widely known that IKEA furniture can be repainted. But... Before you lot grab a pot of your favourite colour, it'south important to understand that painting IKEA furniture is a multi-step process—specially if a professional person result is important to you. Do it right and you may get years' more use from your furniture. Exercise it wrong and you'll have a décor disaster on your easily.

Someone painted this Ikea Hemnes chest without proper preparation. You can come across that the new pigment is peeling off in chunks.

Painting requires both tools and an area where you can get messy. There volition be grit, multiple coats of wet paint and primers, messy brushes and pots to clean up. If that sounds similar your loving cup of tea, follow the link below.But for those who prefer a faster, less messy solution, read on!

No tools, no mess, no time

What if y'all don't have the infinite, tools, energy or fourth dimension for painting? Is there a tool-less, fourth dimension-saving alternative for DIY-ers who desire results by, say, yesterday? We're glad you lot asked!

This alternative to painting is not only fast, it's affordable. Information technology covers dings and scratches in a flash and is finished off with Lux Hax overlays to reach a professional issue. The only tools you demand are a pen (optional) and pair of scissors!

The key to speed here is adhesive vinyl. You may know it every bit 'contact' paper. And you lot may exist rightly concerned that contact paper tin can look, well, a chip tacky.

We've seen vinyl disasters before—bubbling, visible edges, misaligning patterns, peeling, that plasticky finish, and then on. We are non going there. This project uses adhesive vinyl with intentional constraint to accomplish a stylish cease.

Recipe for a 'rattan' rescue

We found this by-its-prime IIKEA Malm bedside chest on Facebook Marketplace for $20 AUD. (At the fourth dimension of writing, that's about $15 USD,  £eleven GBP,  $xix CAD or €13 EUR.)

Clean and dry out the surface

So slow but so necessary—apply a make clean clammy cloth to wipe and then dry whatever surfaces that are going to be covered by the sticky vinyl. This will remove any dirt or grit that may create bumps in your agglutinative or prevent it from sticking properly. If your furniture has handles, remove them at this time.

If in that location are deep chunks missing from your furniture, this would be the time to fill those with a "bog" filler, and so sand back to shine. In this instance, the chipping is superficial.

Choose your print

We decided to create a rattan wait because a) we love rattan and b) so does anybody else. It's everywhere you await on Instagram, in interior design and decoration magazines, and furniture stores at every price betoken.

This rattan chest looks equally at home with a dramatic black border as it does nestled in neutral colours and natural fibres. Source: @lifeinteriors

It's clear that rattan can look slap-up in a variety of interior design styles and brings texture and warmth to a room. However... Real rattan can exist hard to source and difficult to work with, plus information technology can cost a pretty penny! This is where our vinyl agglutinative really comes into its own.

Here in Australia, we plant a diverseness of prints at Kmart, including a convincing rattan print, for just a few dollars a roll! Similar products can be purchased at hardware stores, crafting and homewares outlets, and of course Amazon. For fifty-fifty more designs and textures, yous could widen your telescopic to pare-and-stick wallpaper.

We plant rattan-look adhesive vinyl from Kmart Australia for just $iii a roll. Yous could too use pare-and-stick or textured wallpaper.

Mark and cutting the vinyl to size

If you were using vinyl adhesive all on its own, this is where your measuring and cutting would demand to be precise. But because you're going to cover the edges with a Lux Hax Styl-Console, you tin be quick and lazy. (You're welcome.)

Nosotros used the Styl-Panel as a template. Use a pen to mark the adhesive and so cut it out. You merely need enough vinyl to cover the opening in the overlay, not the entire drawer front.

Apply the vinyl

Commencement at 1 edge and stick the first part of the adhesive sheet to the drawer. Adjacent, slowly pull the backing away from the adhesive trying to go along the backing and adhesive shut to the surface of the drawer. This will brand it easier to smooth down the adhesive.

If needed, yous can use the hard edge of something like a credit card to smooth bubbles out to the side once the whole piece has been applied. The design you choose can also help to disguise imperfections that might announced due to damage or chipping to the furniture underneath.

Apply your Lux Hax Styl-Panels

We are using Lux Hax Styl-Console 1133 To Suit Ikea 2-Drawer Malm Chest for this projection. These are rigid 3mm overlay panels made in Commonwealth of australia from hard, durable foamed PVC. When used solitary, Style-Panel 1133 creates a Shaker wait. Coupled with this contact vinyl, however, it mimics the on-tendency expect of rattan furniture.

For a professional person finish, the overlay perfectly matches the size of the drawers, which means it covers the edges of the contact.

Applying your Styl-Panels is as simple as stick and press:

Our Styl-Panels are perfectly sized for perfect results. No-mess agglutinative is supplied with your overlays or your could use a construction glue, if yous prefer.

Washed! You accept beautified your dwelling house and created something new and unique from a piece of furniture that was previously heading for landfill. Peachy for 15 minutes of work!

Which IKEA piece of furniture do y'all accept?

We make Way-Panel 1133 to suit:

• Ikea Malm two-drawer chests (this project)
• Ikea Malm 3, iv and 6-drawer chests
• Ikea Besta in door size 60 cm x 64 cm
• Ikea Besta in door size 60 cm x 38 cm
• Ikea Besta in door size sixty cm x 26 cm

Watch the video (39 seconds):

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