painted ikea tarva nightstand

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intro

i painted an ikea tarva nightstand in 2024-2025! it was a lot of fun, and now i have a nightstand with a drawer!

inspiration and prior art

my roommate alka painted an ikea tarva nightstand in 2022, before she became my roommate. (i remember going to home depot with her when she went to pick out the yellow paint for it.) i thought it looked really cool!

below are some "family photos" of our nightstands together.

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painting materials

• the ikea tarva nightstand itself
• paint (interior latex paint) and primer (kilz primer) from home depot
• for painting and priming solid areas: foam rollers
• for painting details: small round brush and medium flat brush (borrowed from my roommate) and q-tips
• sanding equipment for preparing the wood for painting

painting tips

• two articles i referenced
• How to Paint IKEA Furniture (so it actually lasts!) by Christina Dennis
• How to Paint Unfinished Pine Furniture by Anika Gandhi
• some tips from me
• nap rollers can leave little fibers stuck in the paint. (which you then have to sand out...) for that reason, i prefer foam rollers.
• covering a paint tray with a plastic bag can keep it from drying out, making it easy to pause your work.
• the foampro paint pouring spout from home depot helped with pouring paint without messy spills.

some process images

here's an aforementioned trapped nap fiber. gross!

there was a lot of painter's tape involved...