Need a lot of storage, but don’t want to feel like you’re in college? This Ikea Tarva Hack with paintable wallpaper and copper pipes is a great way to customize a Tarva dresser to go with any style! Or do what I did… and customize two!
Update: IKEA has discontinued the Tarva dresser as of 2024. Alternate dressers to use with this IKEA hack would be the KOPPANG or MALM. I would recommend priming these with BIN Zinsser Primer before the wallpaper application.
Inspiration for the IKEA Tarva Hack
The moment I saw Drew at Lone Fox Home add paintable wallpaper to an IKEA dresser, I fell in love.
We had bought dressers from the same line at IKEA for our bedroom renovation in the spring. It was fun to add a color block pattern to it at the time, but that was trend-specific, and I always knew I’d end up updating it a little further when I got the chance.
IKEA Tarva Hack – The Dresser
Wallpaper
The paintable wallpaper look was perfect for the Modern Bohemian vibe in the rest of the room. Drew found the wallpaper at a thrift store, but obviously, that didn’t help me much. When I started my search, I found what looked to be identical wallpaper on Wayfair.
Drew has an amazing YouTube tutorial on how he applied the wallpaper, however I did mine a bit differently. I didn’t remove the drawers to apply the wallpaper because I knew that would make it harder to line up the pattern. Instead, I cut out all the wallpaper pieces to be the same size.
Then I attached the wallpaper to the drawer fronts with Mod Podge.
Trimwork
I framed the drawers out with pine stop trim. I had planned on using pine lattice but couldn’t find the amount I needed, so I used stop trim instead.
The trim still worked great – it was just important to coordinate the rounded side when making cuts. I kept the round edge on the outside.
IKEA Tarva Hack: The Drawer Pulls
Dreaming of Gold
For some reason, I couldn’t get the vision of a gold bar stretching the length of the drawer face out of my mind. Unfortunately, the cost of something like that can get high really quickly. *For example, these 18″ gold pulls are shorter than mine, and cost about 4x the amount mine did!
The other factor was that I was still in love with these little leather pulls we had originally gotten for the dresser. I had seen a few people using copper pipes as pulls, so that felt like the best solution… AND I could still use the leather pulls we already had…. win-win!
Copper to the Rescue
I cut the pipes down to 22″ with this metal cutter… so easy! The copper pipes ended up being just under $5 each, and then I added these caps on each end. I loved the idea of leaving these copper, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that gold would fit the style of our bedroom better. I decided to give rub-n-buff a try for the first time… I’m officially sold!
I spray-painted them black, then I added the rub-n-buff on top using a microfiber cloth. Don’t forget to wear gloves and a mask! I didn’t love the look of the Grecian Gold color in this space, but I absolutely love the Antique Gold option that I ended up using.
Paint
The only other component of this makeover was paint. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t get enough of the look of matte paint, and I try to use it whenever I can. I used Behr Marquee Cypress Vine in matte.
It looks BEAUTIFUL on top of the texture of the wallpaper. The only downside to matte paint is that it highlights any imperfections. It doesn’t bother me at all, but I would recommend sampling!
Styling the IKEA Tarva Hack:
I built U-shaped picture ledges and put prints and plants on those, as that allowed me to have interest, but keep the dresser tops pretty clean. Most of the prints on the ledges follow a geometric vibe, but I added some vintage prints in the mix to tie in the new dresser.
There is an amazing selection of prints at Collection Prints and Flora and Font which is where I got all of the prints pictured! The toothpick/skewer “art” is a random and fun DIY!
Got a few minutes? Check out these quick and easy DIY projects!
4 Easy and Affordable Ways to Refresh a Vase!
DIY Toothpick Art
Woven Pinboard
DIY Ornaments
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