Does anyone else suddenly sit up and take notice when they see a project done by one of their favourite bloggers that they might even be able to do themselves? Or troll pinterest looking for inspiration for easy projects? Do any other Mums pay special attention when they see a project that their little one might even be able to dohelp with? This IKEA numbered drawers hack was one of those projects for me – and for Miss M.

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Personalisation is key

I am a big believer in personalising décor. It’s not just Miss M who loves IKEA, but too much IKEA (or any other big box store) can still result in rooms that are very blah. This happens when a house or room lacks personality. You can’t tell anything about the people who live there – it looks like someone just bought a bunch of stuff from a store. I would say that they just bought a scene from a catalogue, but such rooms rarely even look as put together as a catalogue room.

I like to compare this to recent and older IKEA catalogues. Look at an IKEA catalogue from around 2008, and everything is from IKEA. Admittedly, each scene is well put together, but it could belong to everyone and no one at the same time. Fast-forward to recent catalogues: images will contain a number of small things that will not be available at IKEA. Just the title page of the 2019 (German) catalogue shows construction blocks, a toy dinosaur, books and a wooden car. Other décor that pops up in the first few pages include flowers and leaves, toiletries, large geometric artwork and some gorgeous sculptured heads.

IKEA Catalogue page with sculptured heads

Small changes such as these take a space from box-store bland to a warm family home.

The desire to personalise décor has even spurned an industry of its own. Various businesses sell customised legs or fronts for IKEA furniture, others offer stick-on decals. Websites are devoted to hacking IKEA products. And there is a myriad of art projects out there to help customise a space.

This IKEA numbered drawers hack is yet another IKEA Moppe hack. What makes this one special is that our 3 y.o. did the main part herself. How many IKEA hacks can you say that about?

IKEA Moppe numbered drawer hack, complete with dino light

Personalisation helps kids own it

Miss M (and other kids, too) is prouder of her room and will declare everything to be “so beautiful!” if she:

had a hand picking it out
helped decide on colour or pattern
saw Mummy or Daddy making or installing it for her and
the piece de résistance – she helped make it.

This project is definitely one of the latter category. Miss M loves it and stores her hair clips, necklaces and special stones in it, together with any other treasures she finds.

The hack is based on a project done by Kristine at The Painted Hive for her son’s room. As soon as I saw it, I knew: this is a project to do with Miss M.

The star of the project is the knobs. I got the ones we used on sale from Zara Home just after Miss M was born. I didn’t know at the time what I would do with them. This was the perfect project.

While the exact knobs I used are no longer available, there are a number of other options available on Etsy, such as these or these.

The hack is based on the IKEA Moppe mini chest of drawers. There are soooo many moppe hacks – next to the Rast it is probably one of the most hacked IKEA products. Yet few are so easy that a small child can do most of the work.

IKEA Moppe numbered drawers hack

Turn a plain IKEA Moppe into a cute set of drawers for all your child's trinkets. Better yet, they can help you with this hack!

Active Time1 hr

Drying time1 d

Total Time1 d 1 hr

Keyword: chalk paint, craft with kids, IKEA Moppe hack, milk paint

Cost: €40

Equipment

Hammer, meat tenderiser, other tools
paint brush
drill

Materials

1 Moppe set of drawers or other similar drawers
milk paint in your chosen colour
6 numbered knobs
furniture wax we used silver

Instructions

Turn the drawers around so that you have the flat back showing, rather than the front with the cutout in it. Easy.
Make dents and scratches in the wood. This will give the drawers more character and generate spots for the darker wax to cumulate. I gave Miss M a wooden meat tenderiser, a spurtle and a cocktail muddler and let her hit the drawers as much as she wanted. It was like playing drums!
Paint. Don't worry about drips – they add to the patina. Leave to dry for 24 hours.
Once the paint has dried, drill holes for the knobs. Actually, I didn’t do this, I got my Dad to do it. He was visiting and looking for jobs to do to help out. Done starting to look cute.
Wax it with a soft cloth or brush. Using the soft cloth that came in the set, I showed Miss M how to spread the wax over the box. I had to go back over it and remove some of the wax, but she did a good job.
Attach the numbered knobs. Miss M doesn’t have the coordination to help with this stage yet.

Notes

Follow the instructions on your paint tin for drying time.

We used silver furniture wax, because that is what Miss M chose (surprise, surprise). Black or grey would work well too. Clear will seal the paint, but will not highlight the dings and dents that you made, which would then miss the point.

IKEA numbered drawers hack, finished and in use

Make your own IKEA numbered drawers hack

Is your child a collector of trinkets, like Miss M? Are you looking for somewhere to store them? Why not make your own IKEA numbered drawers hack? You child can even help, which will add to their love of the piece (and hopefully their desire to use it to keep things tidy).