Elegant RAST… or just another RAST you like

Materials: RAST, 4 meters of wood strips (13 feet), white varnish w. silk gloss, wood wax in cherry tree (Osmo Wood Wax), 3 golden handles, wood puddy

Description: What’s somehow right is that IKEA’s famous budget dresser, known as RAST, looks like a piece from the usual furniture store around, hence pretty plain and like made for an 80s child’s room. Fortunately, it is made of pure, solid pine wood, which makes it the perfect canvas for your creativity without further knowledge of carpentry.

The RAST hack of Aubrey and Lindsey inspired me to finish my very own RAST.

What I used: RAST, 4 meters of wood strips (13 feet), white varnish w. silk gloss, wood wax in cherry tree (Osmo Wood Wax), 3 golden handles, wood putty

What to do:
1. Assemble RAST and proceed to treat it with the wood wax. Wood wax needs no preparation, you can simply start to carefully paint the body. However, do not use to much wax at a time, otherwise it’ll darken the area in a different tone. To get a kind of stained look, wipe the surface with a cloth the moment after you’ve applied the wax. After the wax dried, you can try to apply a subtle gloss simply through polishing with a cotton cloth.
2. Sand the drawers
3. Cut the strips to the desired width including the edges – repeat that multiple, multiple times…
4. Nail or glue (I used a compound glue) the lattice to the drawers front
5. Make sure that anything is really in place.
6. Spend another look if it’s all straight and start to fill the edges with wood putty, thus there are no gaps left between the puzzle-esque pieces.
7. Paint the drawers in white – I did three times
8. Add the handles
… fin.

~ Andreas Mitschke, Germany, Mannheim