DIY ikea hack – Map Box

I have had this wooden ikea tabletop box for decades, and since it took a beating in my last move, I decided to sand it all down to clean wood and paint it up decadently, in hopes that it delights me whenever I look at it, and I feel comfortable saying it sure does!

I sanded the wood down, painted directly onto the raw wood to let the watercolour run into the grain, then sanded it all, lightly sealed it with transparent watercolour ground, and added much more opaque paint to detail the terrain, rivers, etc. Then I used my finetec copper paint to add metallic detailing on the drawerfronts and around the top edges of the drawers to class things up.

Not pictured: the interiors of the drawers are all pastels from the general palette.

Process shots: