Wildebeests: Jewelry Organization

After seeing the many, awesome, creative treatments of Ikea's "Fira" mini-chests on IkeaHacker, I decided two years ago to try my own.  Could. Not. Resist!

Ikea's "Fira" is one of my favorite things in the world - it's versatile, inexpensive, and pretty sturdy for being made of like, recycled tinkertoys. ;)   And since I did my jewelry box, I'd always intended to go back and purchase several more, just to have around in case I ever got around to executing my other ideas for the piece.  So many possibilities!  

And only $15!

I've seen these used to organize jewelry, tools, workshop odds-n-ends, art supplies, beads, sewing notions; I've seen them combined to create totally new furniture, mounted on walls as mini-shelving, hollowed out and made into cubby holes, used as cash registers at craft shows and festivals; I've seen them painted, decoupaged, wallpapered, beaded, trimmed with molding - you name it, it's been done to the Fira.  

 just a few of the hundreds and hundreds

of awesome Fira hacks out there

For starters, I bought a 5-drawer model to suit my particular needs:  a large drawer for bracelets, a large drawer for hair things, and the three small drawers across the top for earrings, more earrings, and small perfume bottles and lipsticks:

uh...pardon the sort-of nudity? 

The design on the front was inspired by a batik tjap (the wooden blocks they use to stamp designs onto batik in Indonesia);  the insides of the drawers were lined with a blue and black tie-dyed cotton batik (what? I like batik).   

SSF:  Sorry So Fuzzy

...And then, as I often do, I got tired of it after a while, LOL.  What can I say, I'm fickle I LIKE CHANGE.  Earlier this year I painted only the outside of the chest an intense Chinese-red, and aged it with paint and stain - the drawer fronts I left alone, because I love the design on them.  I think the red sets it off very nicely, too.  

The feet visible in this picture have been on my Fira since I brought it home - they're just not visible in the old pictures.  They're $1 wooden knobs from the hobby store, painted black. 

I also removed the fabric from the drawers when I repainted the outside.  It was nice having something soft to touch when I reached inside, but I got over it after several bracelets and earrings caught on the fabric and pulled it up from the sides of the drawers, making it a piece I constantly had to repair instead of one I could just enjoy using.  

This time, I purchased several sheets of scrapbooking paper and lined the drawers with them.  No fancy decoupage or anything - I simply painted the inside of the drawers a vivid turquoise to contrast with the red, clear-coated the insides to prevent scratches, and laid sections of the paper over the wet Polycrylic.  It wrinkled up a tad at first, but it smoothed itself out as the paint dried.  Very, very pleased with the end result.

Sadly, Ikea discontinued the Fira line in February of this year.  Noooo! I never got a chance to go back and got a frillion of them!  At least I managed to get this one.  Big poopyheads.