I wanted to this use black-brown IKEA Malm side table in the new office space, but I wanted it in white. It sells for about $50 new at IKEA. It seemed silly to buy another once if I already had this on hand. So let’s DIY paint this IKEA furniture side table from black to white. I’d done this before with an IKEA TV unit. You can check that out that here.
This a before photo of the side table. You can see all the nicks and scuff marks from years of wear. Plus the edging was coming off on one side. I gave that a quick super-glue before getting down to business.
Painting Prep:
To keep this quick, I only took the drawer fronts off and kept the rest of the side table intact. I didn’t plan to paint the inside as you don’t really see it. If you want all of the surfaces painted, it’s best to take everything apart. If you do that, make sure you take photos to remember how put it back together!
I gave everything a quick sanding with 120 grit sand paper and rubbed all the dust off with a tack cloth.
Painting:
I started with a base of two coats of Zinsser primer. This primer works great on laminate and keeps the paint solidly attached. This goes on easy with a 4″ foam roller and a foam brush for the corners.
Here is the side table after one coat of primer. The primer doesn’t cover the old color as well here, that will happen later. But, like I said, this primer acts as a bonding agent here to prevent the paint from peeling off the laminate. Don’t skip this step!
Now lets paint! I used Behr Scuff Defense in Ultra Bright White with a semi-gloss sheen. You can see it covers a lot better than the primer. I used a 4 inch foam roller and a foam brush for the paint as well.
More coats of paint, and it’s looking really solid.
Final Side Table:
Here’s the finished table! What do you think?
Want to know the project costs? Well, the project was free! It was done with paint I already had on hand. Plus, I don’t think I mentioned this before, the side table was originally found on the sidewalk for free! Woohoo, lol.
