Getting Some 'Rast' Ideas

During our last trip to Ikea (which is amazingly only like 25 minutes away!!), I wanted to check out some dressers to see what could possibly fit in our tiny bedroom. I had scoured the Ikea site before our visit and measured what was most likely to fit but, you really need to see a piece in person before making any decisions. And also something that looks pretty online can be really cheap-looking in person. 

I had originally wanted something like this to fit near our closet and maybe slide our queen sized bed over toward the wall a bit more. My mom has the red version and I loved the sturdiness, legs, and hardware and thought the white one would be cute in our room. 

It was just too wide and tall for the space I wanted it. I also didn't care for spending $199 when they had a few other unfinished alternatives for less. 

After deciding that I'd be okay with refinishing something, I checked back to ikeahackers.net which is an awesome resource for some great ideas using Ikea products. There's everything from wardrobe hacks to cat litter box hacks. It's very interesting to see what people have come up with to solve some of their home problems using inexpensive Ikea fare and a little ingenuity. 

I stumbled on some incredibly beautiful hacks using the Ikea 'Rast' dresser. Surprisingly, the dimensions were so perfect I figured that I could buy two and use them on either side of our bed as night tables for even more storage than I had originally planned. 

This is the good, old, knotty-piney Rast dresser. It's pretty solid and was pretty simple to put together (even for Ikea standards):

At $35 dollars each, the price was right and I knew it wouldn't break the bank to spiffy these babies up. 

Here's some inspirational hacks that I was contemplating:

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But ultimately, this captured my heart. I liked the idea of the stained top being durable and I could stain it to complement our platform bed. I also like the idea of the white drawers being able to go with pretty much any type of bedding I could get. This could be a design that would last a few years without being the wrong color and I wouldn't have to worry about refinishing it when I choose different bedding. 

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I'm pretty excited to get my materials and get started.  Yet, I'm still wondering how I'm going to keep all the cats away from me while I'm working. :/ That could be a problem...