Quick and Inexpensive ways to update Furniture

We’ve had the same IKEA Hemnes Dresser for almost 10 years now. It has survived two moves and is still going strong. It’s current price is $249, which is I’m pretty sure lower than when we originally purchased it (I think it was $299 then). For that price point, its been a great piece of furniture. I have the right half and my husband uses the left side. We use the Skubb drawer dividers in some of the drawers for socks and underwear and I fold everything using Marie Kondo’s Konmarie method so that I can easily see my tee shirts, gym clothes, loungewear, etc. without making a mess and insuring I can find and wear the things I have.

The knobs are a matte black/grey that are really good knobs. In our last house we had a very large master bedroom with lots of furniture and the black blended well with brown and upholstery pieces and other black accents. I had never had the desire to think about changing the knobs. They blended in and were plain, which was just what that room needed.

Our current bedroom has room for a bed, two nightstands, this chest, and a small chair. While I’m still playing around with the design of the room (the bed we had that we moved ended up just being too overwhelming for the space, as shown from another room below) and we plan to swap out the king bed for a queen and then find the right nightstands for the space.

Back before we had decided to swap out the bed for something smaller, Chris Loves Julia showed this dresser on one of their blog posts and it gave me the idea to swap out the knobs. I’ve done this a million times on other pieces of furniture that I staged with, where the piece worked but the knobs were the wrong style or color or I painted the piece of furniture and swapped out the knobs for a completely different look. I’ve done it and had my clients do it in countless kitchens and bathrooms to change the look For very little money and make the cabinets look updated. I had just never had the need or desire to swap it out on this piece. The color, size and function of what we had was perfect so all I needed was to find just the right knobs.

When shopping for other things at our local home improvement store I looked at the knobs but the options were very limited, especially in the brass I was looking for. Since our home is a historic home, there are finishes on the door knobs and some of the light fixtures so I wanted to add that finish again here and also felt it would elevate the look of the dresser. Here are the options I looked at, all on Amazon. My trick is to save them either to my cart or in a wish list and then go back and compare them and see which ones I like best. I also needed 12 so I wanted to be mindful of the cost and how they were sold.

All of them except the Dresser Bail Pull and the English Pull (which I’ve used before on another dresser I rescued, painted and swapped the knobs on) would have been an easy unscrew the old knob and screw the new one in so I quickly eliminated that one. I really liked both the ring pulls and the egg pull but decided i wanted something that looked clean and simple while adding elegance and the brass. Price and how they were sold was also a factor. I ended up choosing the Flamed Bronze Large Knob and ordered both the 10 pack and then 2 individual knobs to get the 12 I needed. When I purchased them, all 12 ended up costing about $75, which may seem a little expensive for an under $300 dresser but since it is holding up well and we really like the dresser, it gave us a whole new antique and elevated look for under $100. Here are the results. I love the NEW LOOK!

Have you done a simple knob swap on furniture or cabinets that has made a huge difference for little money? I’d love to hear about it.

Please follow and like us: