Let’s get one thing straight: buying and PAINTING an IKEA piece wasn’t my idea. That was all Z. They say out of the adjectives “fast, cheap, good,” you can only choose two. All three are rarely possible. Z wanted a fast and cheap storage solution for our endless amount of books, so we should’ve known how painful it was going to be to manipulate this piece from IKEA.

Originally, our idea was to paint this piece and put it behind one of our couches to store everything from books and records to tchotchkes and everything in between. However, we’re now in the process of selling the very couch this piece was meant for, so once Z had finished painting, we had to pivot. The process of getting from point A (the piece as it originally came) to point B (what it is now) involved A LOT of cussing, endless threats to “fuck it” and “forget it,” and even some breaking of some pieces and throwing them across the room. It was wild, and I feared for Zac’s overall mental health. But he did it, guys. He finally got all the primer, paint, and sealer on this piece of shit, and the second it was done, we decided it would be become our bedroom library.

Our bedroom has been, well, a bit of a mess since I moved in. It wasn’t a priority for us, so it’s just sort of sat there for the last four months. As pictured here, you can see we were just storing smaller pieces of furniture that we weren’t sure what to do with just yet. Simply put, it was a sad state of affairs.

Like I said, the IKEA piece wasn’t even meant for our bedroom in the first place. We might’ve painted it different colors if we had been planning for that, but it’s all good. The important thing is that we made it come to life in an unexpected way. I suggested to Z that we try it out in this space but stack the pieces to create a real moment, and he was on board. So we did just that.

If you see imperfections, please give us grace. I truly am floored Zac even finished painting this, so I was willing to take it any way he was going to give it to me. Once we had the pieces stacked and in place, we started adding to it bit by bit.

The books had to be categorized by color, naturally. Zac suggested we leave the very top row out of sorts, and I surprisingly agreed to that. We added our family photo to the top, along with a set of brass candle sticks I found at a thrift store, and a few other cute knick knacks we had laying around. But Zac wasn’t pleased yet. He felt it needed more height, so he grabbed a mirror I had brought over from my old place and hung it up.

Okay, honey, YES. We were getting somewhere and I loved the destination. The rope isn’t exactly the vibe of our room, but it works for now and that mirror adds the perfect amount of height and depth. It was close to perfect, but needed just a few more details in the way of candle sticks and non-functional but super cute door knobs (the cabinets push open). I found both on Etsy right then and there, ordered them, and they both arrived late last week! Drumroll for the finished look…

When I tell you this is a moment when you walk into our room, believe me. What’s more is the candle sticks have a faint, super clean scent to them that hits you right in the nostrils as soon as you walk in, which I love. I’m so delighted over this entire set up and relieved we found the perfect home for it within our home. We’ll never ever be buying another piece of furniture from IKEA again; hard won lessons. But so so happy with what it turned into. Linking exact or similar items below in case you’re interested!