When we moved from Maui to Emerald Isle we wanted a fresh start so we left all of our furniture behind. Life on Maui really takes its toll on furniture so there was no point in shipping it.
Furniture shopping on the mainland proved to be a big fat rip off. The furniture stores played all kinds of pricing games, and the prices that were clearly marked were ridiculously high for what you’d get. I am talking $500 for a dresser made out of toxic particle board with a thin cheap looking printed plastic or paper veneer covering it. The quality was slightly better than a cardboard box covered in contact paper. Seriously, I am no cheap skate and I don’t like to be ripped off either.
Then, we discovered IKEA. Ikea has real wood furniture that you can stain and seal yourself for a really reasonable price. The furniture comes unassembled, with very easy to understand assembly directions. We furnished our entire house for less than the cost of a bedroom set at one of the furniture chains. We ordered everything on-line and it came right to our door.
Ikea was great. However the company that ships to Emerald Isle, (a company called STI) not so great. It took them about two months to get our complete order to us. They damaged several pieces of our furniture, our dinner table was broken in half. STI forgot half of our initial order in their warehouse and took another week to get the rest to us, severely damaged. If you can carry your own furniture home from IKEA, do that.
We ordered much more than you see in the photo and to keep the situation organized and under control only one or two boxes of furniture were worked on at a time. After unboxing and inspecting the unassembled parts for the furniture, I began sanding. Then the wood was conditioned and stained. After a couple of days drying time (It was really cold outside so it took some time) the wood was sealed with the polyurethane. After the pieces were allowed to dry thoroughly, the furniture was assembled.
Materials used:
Sandpaper 220 grit, then 400, then 800.
For the top surface of the Tarva Dresser I used Unicorn Spit Stain. I had never used Unicorn Spit before this project. It still turned out great.
To finish the rest of the IKEA Tarva dresser, Tarva Bed and IKEA Rast 3 drawer chests, MINWAX products were used.
Step 1: MINWAX PreStain Wood Conditioner. For a more consistent color
Step 2: MINWAX Wood Finish Penetrating Stain. Color, Classic Grey 271
Step 3: MINWAX Fast Drying Polyurethane Clear Semi-Gloss, applied over the grey and over the Unicorn Spit for durability.
The wooden drawer pulls were included. I painted them blue and silver then applied Scribbles 3D Fabric paint for a simple mandala design. This gives the knobs an almost beaded look.
In the end, the shipping company proved an outstanding level of incompetence and IKEA refunded the $350 shipping charge. I have finally finished sanding, staining, and sealing all of the furniture. This project was fun, rewarding, and turned out really nice. As a bonus the money we saved by choosing the reasonably priced furniture option will buy us another trip to Japan.