Temporary Paint Job DIY

Temporary Paint Job DIY

IKEA hack tutorial on Hemnes TV stand

If any of you are like me, your style and likes can change as often as your underwear the seasons. So I pulled a little piece of childhood back into my life and used Con-Tact paper for my temporary paint job. Yes, that awesome stickiness used in my 70's kitchen growing up! Great stuff, eh? They have some pretty cute stuff now to choose from too, but for this project, I just used white. There are a few different brands to choose from too! I picked mine up from Walmart. Now, this is a very small project--probably not a good idea to use it on the wall or anything, but hey, if you try it out and it works, please let us know!

I wanted to paint my plain Jane IKEA Hemnes TV stand to give the room some color and lighten it up a bit (on our to-do list: white built-in entertainment center/bookshelves across the whole wall, but that's a future post...as in after we actually get around to it--maybe Spring Break?!? A girl can wish...). Not sure I wanted to sit and paint the whole thing though. We got a steal of a deal on the stand from our local online classifieds, so I wasn't super attached to it or anything. But knowing me and my ADD, I didn't want to totally commit to it, ya know? Plus, if I wanted to actually paint it, there would either be chalk paint or sanding plus painting involved and I wanted simple and not too messy or involved. I narrowed it down to just the front panels of the drawers. Yes, the center one is missing--we used the track for the drawer and put our surround sound receiver in there instead. It glides out! Genius, that husband of mine. So since I only had to work on two drawer fronts, this literally took me maybe 30 minutes! Now that's my kind of DIY project!!!



Here are the supplies I used, minus the Con-Tact paper which I obviously hid really well from my three year-old who turns everything into light sabers. I found some cute geometric shaped Martha Stewart stencils from the local craft store and went for it! First I measured (okay, I probably didn't really measure, just eye-balled it) and cut the Con-Tact paper about an inch bigger than I wanted on each side. Then I removed the knob from the drawer front that came with it and carefully plastered the sticky stuff on, wrapping it around each side as well. This was a bit tricky since you want it to be straight and you don't want bubbles...but I finally got it! I kept the Con-Tact paper at a high angle so that it wouldn't stick too early and then I rubbed all of the bubbles out as I laid it down. It would definitely be easier with two people. Also, you can easily cut it after you get it on to shape it just right. I used an Exact-O knife to trim it up and make it fit (that is the pen-like thing in the picture--didn't realize I kept my cap on). Once it was done, I sprayed a light coating of spray adhesive on the back of my chosen stencil (interlocking circles) and eye-balled it, like usual, centering one of the circles to the knob hole. To make it nice and crisp, you could paint white first, but I was all about getting done quickly, so I went right for the teal. I chose Americana's Bahama Blue from the craft store and started sponge brushing it on.

Once I was done, I pulled it off and voila! Just like that, a bright new, fresh look. I had to clean up some little spots, but they easily scraped off even with my finger nail, but I haven't had anything that I didn't want to scratch off (even with three kids running around). I added my yellow spray painted jumbo knobs which were originally peach and from Pick Your Plum. Just the right touch of pop. And I can easily take it off whenever I am sick of it. :0) I did this project about a year ago, so maybe it will not change as frequently as I had initially anticipated....