No matter what we do, it seems that we never have enough space for clothes. We’ve always had a walk in closet but it just never seems to be enough! Throughout the years we’ve spent a small fortune on various dressers, thinking every time, *this should solve the problem*, from brand new pieces to antique- it just always either looked too cluttered or didn’t offer enough space. Finally, during one rainy day trip to Ikea we came up with the perfect solution! We were tired of having multiple pieces of furniture in our room taking up precious space and we wanted to end up with a custom/built in looking solution. We decided to purchase two of the tall IKEA Hemnes dressers and combine them into one large piece. This enabled us to keep everything looking clean simplified in one area, and freed up much needed space in the rest of our room. Combining the two dressers was a relatively simple project that we finished in about a day and a half, and we couldn’t be any happier with the end result! Our IKEA Hemnes hack has the custom,high end look we were going for and offers tons of space too! Here’s how we did it:
We purchased two of the Ikea Hemnes tall dressers for less than $200 each.
First, we trimmed off the tabletop overhang so that the dressers would sit tightly up against each other. Next, we used screws to attach the two dressers together from the inside.
After the dressers were attached, we used wood filler to minimize the seam where the two dressers met.
Next, it was time to build a custom top! To build the top, we ended up using pieces of pine flooring that we had left over, but you could use just about anything. First, we cut and attached pine boards to the existing table top. Then we cut 2″ strips for the frame and face nailed them to the existing table top to give it a more finished look.
Close up of the new top…
Next, we cut baseboards for the bottom of the dresser to give it a more built-in feel.
Finally, I gave the dressers a nice coat of off white paint and applied a medium brown stain to the dresser top. To protect the top I applied two coats of Minwax High Gloss Poly!
We completed this DIY built in dresser in 2015 and are still loving everything about it to this day!
How did you cut the top portion of the dresser? What other ways would you recommend or not recommend?
Did you paint the entire dresser with the off-white paint or just the added piece at the bottom?
It’s been a while but I believe we just painted the trim piece on the bottom since it matched.