Ikea Hack DIY Beverage Cart From a Dresser Tutorial

I'm excited to share a recent DIY project I completed in conjunction with a live presentation I gave at the Novi Boat Show Harborside Market this weekend. Lakeside living and entertaining go hand in hand, so I decided to share a tutorial on how to turn a budget friendly dresser into a chic beverage cart with a little nautical flavor. 

Take a look..

Before

After

You already know I love a good Ikea hack. DIY projects involving Ikea furniture can be quick and simple, as well as dramatic and that's just what I was going for. I started this project by purchasing an unfinished, unassembled, Tarva Dresser.

Prior to assembling the dresser, I painted all sides of each piece of wood with cabinet, door and trim paint by Dutch Boy. It has primer built in and adhered beautifully to the unfinished Tarva wood offering a durable, one coat finish. The color I used was "Cooled Graphite".

Once the paint dried, I assembled dresser per the instructions. When it came time to install the drawers, I omitted step where I was supposed to put the top two drawers. This left room for my bar serving area. 

I screwed a stemware rack underneath the top of the dresser. 

To give the piece a finished look, I added a piece of wood to create an apron across the top. This helped to disguise the white wire glass rack.

Using a piece of MDF cut to size and painted out in gray, I created a shelf above the drawer. Thin strips of poplar screwed into the sides of the dresser act as support brackets for the shelf to rest on. I filled in the holes left from the uninstalled drawers with plastic wood filler. 

Once the wood filler cured, I was able to give the areas a light sanding and touch them up with paint as needed. Then, it was time for the fun part,  accessorizing! This is where I gave this piece some personality and style.

Swapping out the basic wood knobs with these unique compass knobs from Hobby Lobby instantly provided lakeside living flair.

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Wine corks made great vase fillers and these lanterns looks so cute on the top. 

These fantastic hooks featuring rope detail attached to the sides of the bar cart offer a spot to hang attractive towels and bar accessories...

The rest of the styling was done simply by stocking the cart with basic necessities.

The shelf is perfect for wine storage and the top of the piece provides a nice serving area. Cheese and crackers, anyone?

 The three bottom drawers provide a lot of storage space for entertaining supplies which could make throwing your next party a breeze. 

After the presentation, it was so much fun to give this piece away to one lucky recipient at the show! If I'm being honest, it was a little hard to let go of it, but this will be a great project to do again this summer. 

There are so many ways this piece could be customized to complement your decor. How cute would it be to add pretty wall paper to the back of the shelf and/or inside the drawers? The possibilities are endless! I'll be back in a few days to show you the second DIY project I presented to the crowd at the boat show! You didn't think I could stop at just one, did you?  For now, back to the design studio!

We currently have openings for new Online Design Projects (E-Design). If you're interested in getting started on a room makeover in your home, please click here to make your reservation.

Lake Front Living Room

Is anyone else out there in need of a little summer inspiration today?  If so, you came to the right place.  Today's featured online design plan was created for Jason and Karen's brand new lakefront home. 

 The main feature in this space is the amazing panoramic view of the lake from six large windows.  We took our design queue from the water and got to work creating a sophisticated nautical inspired living room.

We positioned their furniture in a way that allows easy access to the deck where they will spend most of their time.  This arrangement also provides a pretty view of the new living room from the deck.  You can see in the true-to-scale illustration above that we placed a sofa table behind the sofa, this dresses up the back of the piece.  

You can also see that we incorporated a large (11 foot long) built in media unit with custom bookcases.  It will look similar to the image above.  This will also be a beautiful feature to see when looking into the space from the deck.

We chose a color palette of warm grays and sandy beiges.  

We added color, texture and pattern in pillows and accessories.  

Nautical accent pieces, like this beautiful rope mirror and a gray-washed wicker wing chair add to the relaxed lake front living flavor of this design.

Solid colored upholstery make the sofa and side chairs timeless.  Mixing a tan sofa with gray chairs breaks up the set and keeps the room interesting. 

Tri-colored striped drapery were recommended to frame the windows.  This will highlight the lake view beautifully.  We suggested the fabrics shown above to the left; white, jute and charcoal.  These drapes can be made in 26 different colors, for more information on them please email me at:  TheYellowCapeCod@yahoo.com.

Extra large beach inspired art and a set of character rich oars were used as large-scale wall decor. 

In addition to the products shown here, we provided a custom paint color suggestion, step-by-step instructions on implementing their new design, and a complete product source list that included additional products (side chair, occasional tables, console table, additional art options, accessories).

Thank you, Karen and Jason for giving us the opportunity to design this space.  Congratulations on your beautiful new home!

For information on my affordable online design consultation service, please click here. 

® The Yellow Cape Cod 

Nautical Boys Room

Time to update the boys room. Their favorite place to be is on lake at our cottage in Northern Michigan so, that was my inspiration.

I chose a dark navy wall color w/ nautical stripes.

The theme was also inspired by this vintage detroit boat race poster from my husbands childhood...

We brought the dresser home from our cottage. It was updated with a coat of black paint, polyurathane and new brushed nickel hardware.

I stole these old boat oars from my Mom. I have plans for them that I will share later but for now they are resting in here.

I found this compass rose wall decal online. I cut out the center and place it around the ceiling light. The original plan was to hand paint it but this route was much quicker (and easier to remove later).

The vintage sock monkey was made by my aunt when I was a child. It has seen better days but he keeps an eye on the boys for me.

I can't wait to share whats going on in their closet...

No space in our house is safe.
Click Here to see this room decorated for Christmas.


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