Painted Ikea Moppe hack - Creative DIY

Today, I'm sharing an Ikea Moppe hack! It's an Ikea Moppe painted in a Farmhouse star quilt design and It's a great idea for giving your home decor a new look for very little extra cost!

The Ikea Moppe storage chest is the perfect small space organiser for your desk, craft room, playroom or even your pantry and kitchen and it's super affordable. I've painted a Farmhouse star quilt block design onto the front of my Ikea Moppe chest of drawers and if you're interested in tackling your own Ikea Moppe hack, I'm giving you the full DIY tutorial below.

What is the Ikea Moppe?

The Ikea Moppe is a cute little storage chest made from untreated birch plywood. At one point, the Ikea Moppe was discontinued from the Ikea furniture range but the mini chest of drawers was one of those Ikea products that were greatly missed, hence it's now firmly back on the shelves.

What can you use the Ikea Moppe for?

Add extra Storage

What makes the budget-friendly Ikea Moppe chest so popular is how versatile it is for organising. Ikea hackers know that the Moppe is a great way to add extra storage in any number of ways in the kitchen, office, craft room, living room, bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, playroom well practically every room in your house! Who doesn't love an organised home? It's easy with this Ikea Moppe hack.

Amazing hacks with Moppe

You can also see amazing Ikea Moppe hacks all over Pinterest, where the Ikea Moppe has been painted in various Farmhouse, Industrial and modern designs. It seems there are no end of ways to remake the Ikea mini storage chest!

Other creative ways to revamp your Moppe unit include covering the whole chest with contact paper or scrapbook paper, to create a more colourful piece.

You could paint the Moppe cabinet with a little bit of chalkboard paint, then label the drawer fronts with the names of your craft supplies or whatever it is you want to store in them.

Ikea Moppe desk hack

Create an Ikea desk hack by turning the Ikea Moppe drawers around so that the finger pull is at the back and then add some metal label holders or new drawer pulls instead, for a clean look.

New Piece of furniture

There is an Ikea Moppe hack that adds a little fun to these mini chests by adding some hairpin legs or bun feet to create a completely new piece of furniture. You would need to use a power tool, drill bit, small screws and maybe some wood glue for this but what an easy Ikea hack that would be! It's the easiest way to create the perfect size side table for your living room or bedroom.

SAVE IT FOR LATER!

If you'd like to save this amazing painted Ikea Moppe hack for later, be sure to pin it to your most relevant Pinterest board. Hover over or tap the top left corner of the image below and the Pinterest 'Save' button will appear.

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Ikea Moppe Hack – Supplies

Just a few basic supplies are needed for this Ikea hack with a Farmhouse star quilt pattern.

Ikea Moppe mini chest of drawers

Pencil

Ruler

White primer for wood

Black marker pen

White chalk paint

Black acrylic paint

Large paintbrush

Smaller paintbrush (for painting the black pattern)

Clear furniture wax

Wax brush

or, Polyacrylic

White wax

Rag (For buffing up the wax)

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Instructions

You're going to love how quick and easy it is to recreate this Ikea Moppe hack painted in a Farmhouse quilt design. You will have unique to you extra storage in no time at all!

A QUICK REMINDER: When attempting any DIY project, please take care to undertake the necessary safety precautions. You should always follow the manufacturer’s safety recommendations when using any product or tool. When following my instructions for a DIY project, you are doing so at your own risk.

Step 1

Clean: First, wipe the Ikea Moppe chest with a damp cloth to remove dust.

Step 2

The next step will be to make a template: Cut a sheet of A3 paper to the size of the Ikea Moppe. I placed the paper over the top and pressed my fingers along the outline so I could see where I needed to cut. If you are painting the Ikea Moppe six drawer chest, you should end up with a square piece of paper.

Fold the paper in half and then in half again.

Open up the paper. Now, fold the square of paper from corner to corner, make a crease along the fold line and then fold in half again and do the same. Open up the paper.

Use a pencil to draw along the fold lines.

Now you can draw in the lines you need for whichever Farmhouse quilt design block you would like to use.

Once you've drawn in the lines on the paper template, write the initial of each colour you'll be using into the corresponding part of the template. This will keep you on track once you begin painting.

TIP: If you prefer to use my template, you can download it from the subscriber library. I've split the template into two halves of A4 paper to make it easier to print out. You will just need to tape them together after printing.

Sign in to the subscriber library. The password is at the end of every newsletter I send out.

If you are not a subscriber but would like to be, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here.

Step 3

Prime: Remove the drawers ready for painting. Give the Ikea Moppe body and drawers a coat of white water-based wood primer. As explained above, the Ikea Moppe is made of untreated birch. It's important to use primer on raw wood to prevent it from absorbing the chalk paint.

I used primer on the outside only, of all four sides of the drawers. I primed the outside body of the Moppe mini chest but not the inside since I won't be painting that.

Step 4

Paint: Cover the mini chest in one or two coats of white paint. You can use any colours you like to re-create the Farmhouse star quilt design on your Ikea Moppe mini storage chest. I used chalk paint in antique white for the base.

Step 5

Transfer the stencil: Now, you have an Ikea Moppe painted with your base colour chalk paint. Once the paint is dry, it's time to transfer the stencil which you made in step two above, onto the front of the Moppe mini chest.

Using a pencil, draw lines onto the Moppe exactly as they are on your template. You can use the template to make sure that you draw in the lines correctly. If you make a mistake, use a pencil rubber to remove the incorrect lines.

Step 6

Draw in lines with a marker: Now that you've transferred the template onto the front of the Ikea Moppe, check and double-check that the lines are correct.

Use a marker pen to fill in the lines of the template.

TIP: I used a black marker pen because I wanted my Farmhouse star quilt block design to be in black and white. If you choose another colour for your contrast colour then you also need to use that colour marker pen to fill in the lines on your template.

Step 7

Paint with a contrasting colour: Once you've drawn over the lines with a marker pen, it's time to fill in the contrasting colour with paint. I used black acrylic paint because that was what I had on hand.

Use a small paintbrush to fill in with paint for the contrast colour. Make sure to paint next to the lines carefully.

Step 8

White Wax: Now you have your Ikea Moppe painted with your base and contrast colours, it's time to seal the paint to protect your Ikea Moppe hack.

Once the paint is dry, you should give your Ikea Moppe a coat of clear wax because the wax will protect the paint finish ensuring that it lasts longer. I used Annie Sloan clear wax but any clear furniture way will do.

TIP: If you need a tutorial for applying clear wax, take a look at part four of my bookcase makeover post.

Step 9

Distressing: You now have your Ikea Moppe painted and waxed, you could just leave it there if you'd like. I decided to take my Ikea hack a step further by giving my mini storage chest a distressed look.

This time, I took the easy route, by using white wax to distress the Moppe chest, instead of using the sandpaper method.

I used a wax brush to gently brush some white wax over the front of the Moppe chest. The wax shows up against the black and makes the wood look distressed.

TIP: If you'd rather use sandpaper to distress your Moppe mini drawers, take a look at some of the following furniture upcycling posts to get the 'How-to':

Coffee table makeover

DIY Rocking chair makeover

TIP: Instead of using clear wax to seal the painted Ikea Moppe, you could use a water-based Poly instead. Poly is a little harder wearing than wax but you need to make sure that you choose one which does not turn yellow in the sun. You can read all about using Poly in my coffee table makeover post.

Step 10

Cure: After waxing, let the Ikea mini chest cure overnight. If you're not sure what curing is, it just means that the wax needs to set hard.

Step 11

Buffing: After twenty-four hours, the wax on the painted Ikea Moppe will be set and ready for buffing.

Use a clean lint-free rag to rub over the painted and waxed areas of the Ikea Moppe. The paint will have a gentle sheen to it once you've finished buffing.

Easiest Ikea hack finished!

Now your painted Ikea Moppe is ready for use as a small space organiser! You can see the finished look of this unique Ikea Moppe hack below.

Moppe hack end result

Upcycling a cute little Moppe storage chest is one of the easiest Ikea hacks out there! It's a quick and easy makeover and the fun part is that you can customise the Moppe to suit the décor in any room in your house. Because of its size, the Moppe is also a versatile little organiser for small spaces.

I'm currently giving my tiny office a Farmhouse style makeover (reveal coming soon) and my Ikea home office hack will be the star of the show. I'm using the Moppe as a space-saving desk organiser for all the bits and bobs that accumulate on my corner desk. If you'd like to see how I made a corner desk to fit into a tiny space on a landing at the top of the stairs, you can read that post here:

Turning a landing into an office // DIY corner desk

Well, that's it for this post. I hope you enjoyed this painted Ikea Moppe hack tutorial. If you have any questions regarding this mini storage chest makeover, please leave them in the comments below, I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

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