DIY Midcentury Modern Console IKEA Hack

DIY midcentury modern style with this ikea hack! Who loves a good IKEA hack?! Today I’m showing you how we built our mid-century modern TV console from IKEA “Rast” dressers. I love Joybird’s “Blythe” console, but I wasn’t about to pay $1,399 for it. My version cost about $175!

I love the contrast of the white with dark wood and the gold knobs. I tried to thrift for a long midcentury modern dresser or console to balance our large TV, but after months, I still hadn’t found one that was either long enough, or midcentury modern enough.

In my search for ideas, Reality Daydream inspired me with her IKEA hack of the Joybird Abbey dresser. Check out her tutorial!

For this DIY console, you’ll need:

Midcentury Wood Legs x2: $20.99 each =$41.98
Minwax Wood Stain in Walnut: $5
Polyutherane Spray Finish (satin): $8
White Paint
Gold Paint: (my favorite)
“L” Brackets
1.5″ screws
T Nuts
Plywood, large enough for the bottom of the dresser

In total, I spent about $175 since I already had the paint, plywood, and brackets. Not bad!

Watch the video below to see the whole process of how we transformed three IKEA Rast dressers into this mid-century modern console from beginning to end! Then keep scrolling for the steps to follow along during your own DIY project.

Step 1: Assemble your IKEA “Rast” dressers. This was probably the hardest part of the project – but once you’ve done one, the others come together very quickly. I had a great helper too, as you can see in the video 😉 NOTE: Don’t put in the drawers stops yet since we still need to stain the drawers.

Step 2: Stain the front and edges of your drawers using a foam brush and a clean, lint-free rag. Now, the directions on the can say to sand first, and if you’re using unfinished wood, to use a preconditioner first. And then sand the pre-conditioner.

If you’re the kind of DIYer that my husband is, you’d never dream of skipping a step. Well … let’s be real. I’m about the laziest DIYer ever, and I didn’t want to mess with sanding. Plus, we needed to move into our house in less than a week. I figured, what’s the worst that can happen? It looks terrible and I have to sand it down and redo it? Then I’ll end up sanding anyway, so no time lost in skipping that step now to see if it works.

As it turned out, I pre-conditioned half of the drawers, then forgot to do the rest. I could not tell you which ones were pre-conditioned and which were not. But none of them were sanded, and they all turned out beautifully. So, I’ll leave that step up to you!

Step 3: While your drawers are drying, paint your cabinet boxes white. I put on two coats of Benjamin Moore “Chantilly Lace.” I like that I can still see some wood grain and I like the very matte finish. If you’re going for a shiny, smooth finish, I recommend Benjamin Moore’s “Advance” paint in white. I used this to paint my office built-ins and dries into a hard, shiny surface.

Step 4: While that’s drying, paint the wood drawer knobs gold. You may need to sand these – some of mine were a little rough, and since I saved so much sanding time already, I didn’t mind doing it here. Paint on a couple of coats, since these will be getting a lot of handling in the future.

Step 5: When the stain on your drawers is dry, spray them with a light coat of polyurethane. Definitely take this outside! Several light coats are better than putting it on thick. You don’t want puddles or drips. This spray-on finish was SO easy to use!

Step 6: Once everything is dry, attach the dresser boxes together. You’ll put the 1.5″ screws and T nuts into the sides of the dressers to keep them together. Mark where your drawers will be, so the screws won’t interfere.

Step 7: Next to attach the legs, flip your attached dresser boxes upside down and screw a piece of plywood to the bottom to create a solid base. Then, drill six holes through the bottom for your modern legs: two at each end and two in the middle. Slide the leg into each hole, and then secure it from the inside of the dresser with the black metal pieces that normally would attach these legs to a couch.

Once your legs are secure, flip it back over. This is the perfect time to secure your console to the wall using “L” brackets and install any other safety measures. If you plan to set a TV on top, this is a must!

Step 8: Insert your gold knobs into each drawer using the screws provided, or if you’re like me and lost your screws, any random ones that are about an inch or shorter will work.

Step 9: Reassemble by sliding in your drawers, and screwing in the plastic drawer stops to keep each drawer from being pulled all the way out.

Step 10: Stand back and admire your handiwork!