It’s a tall order to find a stunning dresser that is also affordable. Large armoires are an investment (both budget-wise and from a square-footage standpoint). So what do you do when that dream piece does not exist? Cue IKEA, a can of paint, fresh knobs, and a few other craft supplies. 

Shop

Malm 6-Drawer Dresser, IKEA ($300)

Shop

Tarva 6-Drawer Chest, IKEA ($330)

From Hemnes to Malm to Tarva, all the Swedish retailer’s offerings can be made to look custom if you’re willing to dig out your toolbox and pick up a few extra materials from the hardware store. Choose your favorite look from these 15 IKEA dresser hacks and put aside a weekend to get to work. 

Slap on Slats

The beauty of the six-drawer Malm dresser is that it’s basically a big blank canvas, given the piece doesn’t have any hardware. Kayla Nelson saw it as an opportunity to add some color, personality, and texture. For $200 she covered it in 228 slats cut from MDF and coated it in Gray Heron by Behr. 

Turn It Into a Nightstand, Part 1 

DIYer Jenna Sue has noticed a shortage of large nightstands at an affordable price point, so this creation, which all started with a three-drawer Malm piece, is her giving the world what it craves. Her design hinges on adding pieces of trim at the base of each drawer to give it more of a traditional look, painting it in a chocolaty red hue, and tacking on brass knobs from Amazon. 

Turn It Into a Nightstand, Part 2

Ryia Jose (the blogger behind Kin and Kasa) wasn’t in need of a dresser for her daughter’s bedroom, but she did need a nightstand. So she turned IKEA’s Rast dresser into an ideal storage piece for $75 total by leaving off the toe-kick and bottom drawer, adding fresh feet to the base, cladding the drawer fronts in fluted wood trim, and painting it all in a dark blue. 

Add Definition

After struggling to find a campaign-style dresser for less than $1,000, A Beautiful Mess’s Elsie Larson spruced up a Malm staple with Lewis Dolin bar pulls (they actually cost more than the furniture, but she says the overall savings is still significant). Next up? Corner braces, which she spray-painted to match the shiny brass rods.

Wrap It in Raffia

Rather than drop a cool $4,000 on a piece like Serena & Lily’s raffia-covered Blake dresser, Drew Scott, the YouTuber behind Lone Fox, hacked his Tarva piece for $220. After applying a strip of fine raffia cloth to each of the drawer fronts with Mod Podge, he secured trim around the door edges and painted the wood parts in Benjamin Moore’s Pale Oak.

Beef Up the Pulls

For less than $20, Paper & Stitch blogger Brittni Mehlhoff upgraded her Moppe mini storage chest (a great dresser alternative for a small space or nursery). Her trick: ¾-inch-thick pinewood dowels. She cut the pieces down to size, sanded them, and wrapped them in strips of leather. 

Spice Up the Texture

Erika Lauren of Peony and Honey also used dowels for her DIY—but not the typical wood kind. She cut up rolls of foam, painted them a nude tone, and glued them to the surface to create a channel-quilted look. 

Create a Peekaboo Effect

After assembling her Tarva dresser, blogger Kourtni Munoz of House on Longwood Lane made rectangular cutouts on the drawer fronts using a jigsaw. Then she stained the whole piece so it had a weathered oak finish and stapled cane webbing to the inside of the openings for a beachy-chic feel. 

Build a Dresser Out of Billy Bookcases 

Who said you have to actually start with a dresser? In the awkward hallway that leads to her primary closet and bathroom, Callie Plemel of Home on Harbor installed three IKEA Billy bookcases that were previously in her library and used the framework to design an integrated dresser from scratch. Her construction-savvy husband added drawers to the bottom half of the central bookcase, accounting for one small pullout on the top for jewelry. 

Elevate It (Literally)

IKEA’s Ivar three-drawer chest technically doesn’t come with hardware, but blogger Janelle Burnett changed all that by adding Pretty Pegs’s Greta legs and Stina knobs to two of the dressers (she displayed them side by side to make them look like one piece). The additions were designed specifically for the brand’s furniture, so they attach seamlessly. 

Turn It Into a Changing Table 

Skip specialized nursery furniture by transforming a basic Tarva dresser with some white paint and a colorful pad. Blogger and photographer Erin Kelly sewed the fabric for this cushion herself. 

Go Nuts With Knobs

In order to replicate the look of authentic Jenny Lind furniture, Angelica Kalatzi of My Dear Irene glued flat-back ball knobs around the edges of the drawers. The bright white primer (the blogger used Kilz Adhesion sealer) instantly disguised its dark brown surface. Covering up the knobs will be your biggest time suck, so Kalatzi recommends listening to a captivating podcast for that part.  

Get a Hold on Things With Leather Pulls

It only takes one unexpected material to turn a basic piece of furniture on its head. You don’t have to buy fancy premade pulls for this update. Create your own straps with leather and brass screws. The paint color is all up to you. 

Craft a Mini Library

Can you spot the second IKEA hack? After painting this dresser green and adding sleek knobs to it, Megan Gilger bought two brackets from the company, painted them white, and installed them above the makeshift changing table. She topped the supports with basic wood planks from Lowe’s. Between the cubbies and the shelves, there’s plenty of room for books. 

Go Two-Tone

Shifra Jumelet stained the bottom portion of this dresser a rich brown tone and painted the top a crisp white. But the real surprise was when she swathed all the knobs in a dark dye to create an optical illusion. No one would ever guess it isn’t 100 percent bespoke.

The post A Malm With Sage Green Slats and 14 More Elevated IKEA Dresser Hacks appeared first on domino.

Is it just us or does it seem nearly impossible to find the perfect decorative piece to go in the empty spot above a bed? More often than not, we will either leave the wall blank or decked with a print we’ve had for longer than we would care to remember or admit. That all changes here. As the 11 style-focused spaces ahead prove, even the most mundane or expected elements can instantly transform your bedroom.

Keep the Frames, Ditch the Art

Designing a gallery wall can be a pretty intimidating process. One way to go about it? Forgo the art and opt for a gridded display of frames instead. We’re taking major pointers from this Paris apartment, which proves that something as simple as pairing an eclectic array of antique frames with an alluring shade of wall paint can really go a long way.

Pin Up a Favorite Textile

As far as DIYs go, this trick—which involves tacking up a piece of fabric with your choice of nails or pushpins—is one that requires almost no skill but looks thoughtfully curated. Not sure what type of fabric to casually mount on your wall? Start by shopping your linen closet for scraps or browse Etsy for antique and vintage offcuts. 

Fill Up a Shelf

No room for a nightstand, no problem. Screw a simple pinewood shelf into the wall à la designer Eliza Gran’s Ghent, New York, home and suddenly you’ve got a nearby surface that can hold a lot of weight, including fresh florals and a pitcher. 

Hang Smaller Works Off to the Side

In a small bedroom like the one in this London pied-à-terre, a large work of art over the headboard can feel overwhelming, so here’s a thought: You don’t have to match the wall’s scale or even hang something in the center of the space. These portraits turn out to be more attention grabbing because they’re off-center.

Devise a Gallery Theme

The landscape oil paintings scattered around the bed frame in designer Melissa Colgan’s Washington, D.C., home is her way of maximizing her collection (and her budget). “You get the look of a giant landscape but for less,” she says. By grouping like works together, the area doesn’t feel overstyled, even with so much going on.

Lean Objects on a Ledge

A 6- to 12-inch bump-out can serve as both a headboard as well as a rotating art display. Rather than put a permanent nail hole in your wall, you can lean works, and you also have plenty of room to prop up plants and taper candles, too.

Plug in a Giant Wall Light…

The low 6-foot ceilings and short windows in Christine Espinal’s bedroom sound like a recipe for a cave, but the spatial designer overcompensated with a large Ariette 1 wall light sculpture by Tobia Scarpa, so there’s no way it could ever feel dungeon-y. 

…Or a Neon Sign

Graphic designer Timothy Goodman also traded in the idea of a traditional nightstand lamp for an over-the-bed neon light. Seeing the cords hanging down from the fixture only adds to his studio apartment’s industrial vibes (it’s located in a former hat factory that was built in 1891).  

Explore the 3D

If a swatch of fabric skews too casual for you but you want to add some texture to your wall, consider fiber art. (Psst: The Citizenry has a handful of zen options crafted from cotton thread.) A small colorful rug has a similar effect. 

Float It Over Window Treatments

To solve for the two skinny windows that flank either side of her bed, Sarah Sherman Samuel decided to wrap the entire corner of her space with fabric using a mounted track. And, yes, she was still able to display art. The sculptural LRNCE mirror that looks like it’s attached directly to the fabric is actually suspended from ceiling-mounted hooks. 

Forage for Dried Flora

Victoria Adesanmi lives in Hollywood, but by the looks of her limewash walls (painted in Dune Shack by Portola Paints) and the dried palm frond hanging over her headboard, you’d think she was in Tulum.

The post 11 Clever Ways to Fill the Empty Space Above Your Bed appeared first on domino.

In Renovator’s Notebook, homeowners open up about the nitty-gritty of their remodels: How long it really took; how much it actually cost; what went horribly wrong; and what went wonderfully, serendipitously, it’s-all-worth-it-in-the-end right.  

Square footage: 210

Year built: Late 1800s

Top priority: Remove the micro-kitchen on the top floor of a Brooklyn brownstone in order to add a much needed primary bedroom.

For the first two years that Aubrey Ament and Will Glaser were living in their Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, brownstone, it was a “construction sandwich.” The couple, who run the design firm GLAM Studio, started revamping their garden level shortly after they moved in, with the goal of listing it as a short-term rental on Airbnb so they could secure some extra income and put it toward their mortgage. They treated the floor above that, the parlor, as their living room with the eventual goal of building out their dream kitchen. And until that could become a reality, the couple and their then-newborn son, Theo, holed up on the third floor, where they installed a micro-kitchen they bought at IKEA for $5,000, a dining area, and a shared bedroom. This setup made entertaining an intimate affair, to say the least. “We were cooking Christmas dinner, and my sister-in-law is sitting on the bed while the pork is roasting 8 feet away in the oven,” Ament recalls. 

Then things quickly changed. Airbnb made it more difficult to have a listing in New York City, and the pair realized traversing up and down all of those stairs was becoming a nuisance for their two arthritic senior dogs. So they pivoted: Last summer, they nixed their Airbnb and instead started renting out the space to brands for photo shoots—it was a huge hit. “In August, we booked five different shoots and made three times as much as we would have from Airbnb,” says Ament. 

Ultimately, it gave the couple the financial confidence to do something they never thought they could afford: They claimed their entire brownstone for themselves. This meant they could begin building a true cooking space on the parlor level and trade in their tiny kitchen for a proper—and, most important, private—primary bedroom.  

The Receipts 

Here’s a taste of what the designers spent (and gained!) as they transformed their old kitchen–slash–dining room into a bedroom, including newly purchased furniture and decor. 

• Gut and patch old kitchen: $900
• Fireplace mantel and cast-iron insert: $0 
• Salvaged hearthstone: $500
• Mantel repair and installation: $1,000
• Sin ceramics for the shelves: $290
• Hook and Loom area rug: $525
• IKEA nightstands: $119 x 2 = $238
• IKEA bedside table lamps: $55 x 2 = $110

Total: $3,563

Selling the kitchen on Facebook Marketplace: -$3,500

Final cost: $63

Listing Our Old Kitchen on Facebook Marketplace

Aubrey Ament: The ramping up of our production shoots has allowed us to spread out over all three floors, ditch the micro-kitchen on the top floor, and add a much needed primary bedroom (before, we were squished into a space with our toddler, Theo).

The kitchen was designed to be temporary but ended up very cute in the end. The cabinets are IKEA Sektion with Voxtorp matte white fronts with integrated pulls. The butcher block counter is from Facebook Marketplace and cut to fit. The sink and faucet are from Home Depot, and the oven is a discontinued 24-inch Smeg gas range I found on eBay. 

We thought, hey, maybe we can sell the whole kitchen on Facebook Marketplace and that’ll help pay for switching this room out.

Will Glaser: There are people who want a relatively new kitchen with relatively new appliances for half the price. A good rule of thumb is to list it for 65 to 70 percent of what the value is, especially if it’s only a couple years old. We had some inquiries right away, but they were either lowballs or, in some cases, they wanted just one part of it. It took about a month to find a buyer who was actually interested. I was pretty stoked to get $3,500 at the end of the day.

The IKEA kitchen is an easy “on and off” sort of system. There’s main support rails attached to the wall and the cabinets hook onto that. There’s legs that support it as well. But really, after you unscrew the cabinets, take off the doors, and take off the countertop, they just lift right off. A plumber had to come in to detach the appliances, and then the buyers came over with their van and moved everything out. 

A month later they called us and said, “Hey, we have some of your dishes.” We had accidentally left them in the dishwasher! It was a chaotic time, so the missing plates didn’t even register with us. They were really sweet and dropped them back off in a reusable grocery bag.

Gifting Backsplash Tile to Friends

Ament: We had our friends Sarah and Teddy over for pizza and wine, and we were showing them how we were taking apart the kitchen. We were like, “Hey, do you want these Block Shop x Fireclay tiles?” And they said, “Actually, yeah!”

Glaser: They were finishing out their basement and wanted a kitchenette. 

Glaser: We thought about chipping the tiles off the wall, but that seemed like a likely way to break a bunch of them. So we used a Sawzall to cut the tiles off with the drywall itself, because we knew we were going to have to replace the drywall anyway. We made four big panels of tile attached to drywall. 

Ament: Teddy came over a week later and grabbed them, and they ended up cutting the Sheetrock at their house to fit our tiled Sheetrock.

Restoring Our Neighbor’s Historic Mantels

Glaser: We were interested in the house next door because it had been abandoned for 25 years and it was an exact copy of our house. We were pretty sure that no renovations had ever been done on it, so we thought, maybe it has a bunch of original hardware.

A developer bought it and was demoing the entire place but told us we were welcome to look around and take things if we wanted them. We saw these gorgeous marble mantels on the parlor floor. The next day, we went over with chisels and full hazmat gear and carried them piece by piece into our backyard, where they lived for a couple of months until we were able to get them installed. 

To even buy a mantel new like that would be a couple thousand dollars, so even though it was $1,000 to repair and install each mantel (one is in our son’s room), you’re paying for two people to work a day and a half, matching up the pieces and gluing them in such a way that minimizes imperfections. 

Interestingly, there were no hearthstones in the neighbor’s house. The person who installed our mantels had a connection and was able to source those for us for $500 each. 

Keeping the Open Shelving (for Now)

Glaser: There was definitely a discussion around the most efficient way to have storage in a bedroom. Eventually, we want to build something out. But we thought the open shelves looked good, and we really don’t have a ton of budget left to do much more.

Creating a Haven for Our Toddler

Ament: The bedroom we had before was shared with our son, and we were tired of sneaking in at night and not being able to turn on the lights or make noise because we didn’t want to wake him up.

“Does a kid’s room really need a mantel?” We asked ourselves. But we are always keeping in mind our side business, and that’s a really big thing in New York: having multiple spaces where you can shoot. 

We took inspiration from other brownstone kids’ rooms and put the toddler bed to the right of the mantel, hung his mobile and some art above it, and got a full-size area rug that’s this really springy cotton that’s good for playrooms. This room can be a lot of things: You can fit a queen-size bed in here, you can turn the small alcove on the other side of the room into an exercise area or a sectioned-off bedroom for another kid. We are always down for flexibility.

The post The Final Cost of Our Kitchen-Turned-Bedroom Reno Was a Mere $63 appeared first on domino.

Chef Sara Kramer could already see it: harvesting tender fennel bulbs from tiered raised beds, pulling juicy Blenheim apricots from fruiting trees, and snipping stems of mystical protea to scatter about in vases. She envisioned cooking over an open fire, serving butterflied fish under a dipping sun.

But in reality, when she started to consider a renovation of her charming home in L.A.’s Echo Park neighborhood five years ago—which she now shares with partner Emil DeRosa and their dog, Kevin—what she had was an unmanageable tangle of bushes and other plant life. She had given new life to a garage on the small property but still yearned for a home garden. Having grown up in New York (she was the opening chef of Glasserie in Brooklyn), she had never come this close to her dream outdoor space.

Kramer headed west in 2014, where she and her business partner, Sarah Hymanson, opened Kismet in 2017. The Los Feliz restaurant, featuring Mediterranean and California as well as Sephardic foodways, has carved a solid spot among the city’s vibrant constellation of restaurants, dishing up malawach, marinated feta, and a lot of Persian crispy rice over the past seven years. The eatery is so beloved that it inspired the duo’s first cookbook, which hits shelves this week. It’s packed with the spirited vegetable-heavy dishes they’ve become so well known for. The idea of being able to grow the very essence of her work at home meant something special to Kramer.

“The thing that drew me to the house in the first place was the outside space,” she remembers. “It just seemed so out of reach coming from New York, that when it appeared as an option, I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that I can have this here.’” At the time she bought the house, it was more wild than well kept, so she slotted the idea of a refresh away for when she was ready. 

The circa-1938 home had been through a thoughtful renovation even before she purchased it, which included a refreshed kitchen with retro orange Caesarstone countertops and glossy multicolored IKEA cabinets (a combination she wouldn’t have chosen herself but loves nonetheless). Kramer could tell that the space had been taken care of even if the door molding was mismatched. Plus there was something about the unique wood frame outlining the transition between the kitchen and living/dining area that was sort of sweet.

She initially tackled a minimal renovation of the garage to accommodate a roommate by closing up the ceiling and putting in a window. “It was meant to be a rentable space, which is why it has a little kitchenette and counter area next to the bathroom,” she explains. 

But, after the first cohort of renters moved out, and with nobody moving in during the pandemic, she decided to make the garage space her primary suite—and hasn’t looked back. “I just wanted the room to be pretty serene,” she says. Inspired by a home and designer she met in New Zealand, Kramer decided to have cork flooring installed and added sliding doors that open onto the deck overlooking her lush yard. The big design moment she wanted came by way of her friend Leonard Bessemer of Objects for Objects. A verdantly hued custom wardrobe with built-in bookshelves takes up nearly an entire wall; it was storage that was sorely needed in the home (there’s only one other closet in the whole place). 

Throughout the rest of the home are clean white walls decorated mostly with art from Summertime Gallery, a Brooklyn nonprofit that shows work from a range of neurodiverse artists. Kramer counts paintings by Max Karnig and prints by Luke Gilford and Charlie Engman among her collection. Other prized wood pieces, like a treasured Danish hutch she received from a friend’s family and a Yamaha piano, are on display throughout. (Little-known fact: Kramer was once on Broadway—she was in Mamma Mia when she was 18.)

When she was ready to tackle the exterior in 2022, she knew exactly who to call: her neighbor David Godshall, principal of landscape architecture and design studio Terremoto. The termite-ridden back deck had to be reconstructed, and Kramer took the opportunity to repaint the home’s exterior in Dunn-Edwards’s Travertine, rebuild a protruding rock wall in the front (it had always scratched her car before), enclose the front yard for her dog, and install a gravel driveway.

After all the practical updates were taken care of, they could focus on the more dramatic transformations. “[Terremoto’s] work is so incredible that I couldn’t not go for it and really make it spectacular back there,” she says. From the back patio stairs unfurls an epic outdoor cooking setup, complete with a fire brick grill, where Kramer can char vegetables over an open flame, and a showstopping James Herman–designed oven. “I love cooking outdoors; I really wanted to make that special,” she adds.

Nearby, she serves fava bean pesto, citrus, and tomatoes to her guests atop a locally made table. But descending further, wood and gravel stairs reveals the pièce de résistance: a wood-clad hot tub and outdoor shower, flanked by jasmine and passion fruit. She and DeRosa enjoy sunsets from the tub, but Kramer reveals that her “favorite time to use it is when it’s lightly raining.” It’s just as she imagined it so many years prior.

The post A Handcrafted Outdoor Oven and Wood-Clad Hot Tub Vie for MVP of This Home’s Backyard appeared first on domino.

Shopping for curtains isn’t a design task I look forward to. While they’re one of those finishing touches that makes a room look truly done, I don’t relish feeling my way through the maze of materials, sizing, and hardware. That much is clear from the fact that my husband and I didn’t put anything special up in our Brooklyn two-bedroom for four years (don’t judge). Admittedly, there are a few other reasons for the reluctance: We only have four windows total; a building across the way blocks the afternoon sun; and most of the year we have tree coverage that obscures the view in from the street. Ultimately, curtains is the category where I want someone else to do most of the heavy lifting for me. Enter Everhem.

I’ve written and edited my fair share of house tours, and while many use custom curtain and shade services, one window treatment brand has popped up again and again over the past few years: L.A.-based Everhem, founded by interior designer Haley Weidenbaum and her husband, Adam. Sarah Sherman Samuel uses its drapes in her projects; Heather Taylor Home has done a cobranded line; and Gwyneth Paltrow hung its shades in Goop’s New York office. Alyssa Coscarelli swears by the blackout curtains, and Madelynn Furlong turned to the company for her Manhattan apartment. I’ve spotted the window treatments in a photographer’s cozy home, a jewelry designer’s greenhouse, one Connecticut nursery, and this serene primary bathroom. I was intrigued, to say the least: What was it about these curtains that had everyone snapping them up, especially given their higher price point (standard sizing starts at $400)? 

Everhem Café Curtains

In November 2023, our panel of judges handed Everhem a Good Design Award for its cotton-linen blend Café Curtains. Turns out, that was the style I’d been looking for and didn’t even know it. 

Velvet was too heavy for us; paper shades too light to feel long-term. Plus I’m one of those people who actually prefers the sun to filter in in the morning; I don’t like sleeping in pitch black. Offering privacy without blocking the whole window and more romantic in style than top-down/bottom-up shades, sheer café curtains can channel a cottage kitchen or Paris bistro (I’m a big fan of the look at New York’s Corner Bar). In our space, I knew they’d lend the same timelessness that we embrace in all of our furnishings, decor, and paint colors. But, as an editor, I like to test as many products as I can to get a better sense of quality and material. I decided to get in touch with the brand to see if I could try out the curtains at home.

A Little Hand-Holding for Measurements

The measuring process on our initial call—yes, you can choose to talk to a real, live person—couldn’t have been simpler. Ahead of my scheduled chat with Kasandra, one of the customer support managers, she sent me a brief prep guide on products, tools, and more to have on hand. Together over the phone, we measured each oddly sized window in our circa-1800s carriage house, taking note of the width and length of the frames as well as where the hardware would go (we chose to inner mount). There was none of the trial and error inherent in buying curtains off the shelf, not to mention the wasteful nature of lots of packaging and returns—one of the selling points that makes the splurge worth considering in my eyes. 

Customize Like an Interior Designer

Everhem’s café curtains come with more than a dozen customization options, including fabric, pleat style, lining, and hardware. A few days after the call, three neutral swatches (primarily a linen-cotton blend with a small percentage of polyester) arrived, and Kasandra sent several images via email of the different pleat options. After holding up each piece in various lighting throughout the day, I decided on the Bone hue with classic box pleats and matte black hardware to blend in with the window frames. Lastly, I loved the look of two curtains instead of a single panel, so we went that direction. 

Ordering With a Few Clicks

Order quotes are inputted and updated on Everhem’s website so that you can double-check that everything is correct before adding yours to your cart. The brand is clear and up front about the timeline for drapery, shades, or hardware: up to six to eight weeks. That’s because each window treatment is hand-sewn and custom-made in the U.S. While some components like cords might be sourced globally, manufacturing—including cutting, sewing, hardware forging, and powder coating—is done solely by small American businesses. All of that comes with a higher price, of course, so I think Everhem is a better bet for a longer-term rental or a home you own.

The Fine Print

A few things to note before you dive in. All products are final sale; there are no returns unless something is incorrect, damaged, or defective. Your fabric color and pattern selections are limited to six options, but I expect that to grow over time as the brand does. (If you’re in the market for more color and a slightly lower price, try Loom & Decor or Ballard Designs, but you won’t be able to customize to specific measurements or pleat style.) 

A DIY-Friendly Installation

When they arrived, I could see that the hype was real. The products come well packaged in hard cardboard but not overflowing with unnecessary padding, and installation was straightforward. For something more involved, like a floor-to-ceiling look, I could see the process taking longer or the need for hiring a Taskrabbit, but café curtains are very DIY-friendly; it probably took all of 30 minutes to put up the four rods and curtains. The slightly textured panels bring warmth without feeling fussy; the pleats are sharp but not straight as a dart; and they add a little privacy without being lined. Everything about them, even the hardware, is soft and delicate. They do, indeed, finish the room, and without the usual shopping anxiety.

The post I Tried This Gwyneth Paltrow–Approved Curtain Brand to See What All the Fuss Was About appeared first on domino.

Even though our closets hold some of our most important possessions, we inevitably end up neglecting them. So we’re asking clever homeowners and renters to share their time-tested organizing methods that really (really!) work in our new series, Reclaim Your Closet.

I just doubled my storage, and no, I didn’t move apartments. I got a new bed frame. 

Upgrading my classic IKEA Malm bed to the lift-up storage model gave my towels, bedding, books, winter coats, and tote bags a proper home. While I’ve always kept those items under my bed (usually crammed inside a random suitcase), to get to anything in the center, I’d have to manually lift my mattress and balance it on my back while crouching over and pulling up the wood slats. It wasn’t a pretty picture, and may or may not have led to some chronic back pain. 

The classic and storage Malm beds are almost identical, but while the classic comes in four colorways and four sizes, the storage version comes in just two colorways and two sizes. Luckily, the size and color I wanted, full and white, came in both. The prices also differ quite a bit; for the full size, the upgrade takes you from $329 up to $659. My favorite difference: Rather than open-air sides, the storage version is completely closed. That one seemingly simple difference is what ultimately inspired me to make the swap. I knew this tiny upgrade would make my entire apartment feel so much cleaner—all of my stuff would be out of sight and, more important, it wouldn’t be such a pain (literally) to access stuff. 

Malm Storage Bed, IKEA ($659)

Shop

The Assembly

The bed was delivered the next day (yes, you read that right) for $39. Delivery didn’t include assembly, so I hired a TaskRabbit. After watching the skilled professional with a 5-star rating take a full two hours to build the bed, I knew I had made the right choice. Paying him $150 saved me what would have been an entire weekend of frustration.

Now I simply pull a strap at the foot of the bed and—voilà!—my mattress opens to a 45-degree angle. 

The Organization

I have what I like to think of as a brand-new closet (it’s just one that lays flat on the floor!). Rather than reverting to my old ways and keeping my belongings in old suitcases, I went back to IKEA and tricked it out with interior storage compartments. Because there are so many options, I asked the interior design leader for IKEA U.S., Abbey Stark, for some pointers. She recommended a combination of Skubb and Parkla, both of which are soft zippered containers, as well as Kugis, a lidded plastic box. Full closure keeps dust at bay, and handles make them easy to pull out.

Before I put my order in, I got out a ruler and graph paper and drew the bed and containers to scale so I could play around with different orientations. After landing on the below layout, there were no surprises once my order arrived.

So what goes where? I started intuitively, putting anything that was soft and flexible (table linens, bedding, pillow inserts) in the fabric containers, and any hard objects, like books and extra taper holders, in the structured Parkla boxes. Because the Skubb boxes are the largest (they’re 36.5-by-21.75-by-7.5 inches), I saved them for bigger items like towels, and relegated smaller collections like tote bags to the Parkla containers. The nice thing about the soft containers is that they’re both sheer, so I don’t need to waste brain space remembering what is where. 

Skubb, IKEA ($7)

Shop

Parkla, IKEA ($2)

Shop

Kuggis, IKEA ($30)

Shop

The post I Treat the IKEA Malm Storage Bed Like the Linen Closet I Never Had appeared first on domino.

Like most of us, food stylist and recipe developer Diana Yen has a visceral reaction when she thinks about bifold closet doors. She can practically hear the squeaking of the slow-rolling track and feel the hard yank it takes to pry each side open. “Growing up, they haunted me because they always had the louvers,” she says with a laugh. “I thought they were terrible.” But when Yen bought her house in Ojai, California, and realized her bedroom closet didn’t have any doors at all (the dorm vibes were strong), she decided to give the thing she’d once hated most a second chance. “I had all this stuff on Pinterest, looking into IKEA hacks and European-style doors, trying to figure out what to do,” she recalls, “and I realized a bifold was the most cost-efficient.” The custom closet designs she had briefly looked into were in the $10,000 ballpark, but transforming a set of simple bifold doors from Home Depot took less than $500 and a weekend to complete.  

The Supplies

• Bifold doors
• Flexible molding
• Caulk
• A pencil
• Scissors
• Chalk paint 
• Hardware of your choosing 

36 in. x 80 in. White MDF Interior Closet Bi-Fold Door, The Home Depot ($428)

Shop

Gaahing Wall Molding Trim Chair Rail Panel Moulding, Amazon ($20)

Shop

Step 1: Map Out Your Path

Yen’s inspiration came from—where else!—Instagram. Her Italy-based friend Jayne Henderson posted a carousel of cool-looking doors and one of them with a squiggle outline caught Yen’s attention. “I was like, wow, I feel like that molding gives a poetic touch and makes it elegant but still kind of whimsical,” she says. With a pencil, Yen traced wavy oblong shapes onto each of the door panels, totaling eight undulating silhouettes. 

Step 2: Peel and Stick

“I felt like a cheater because I got it from Amazon,” Yen jokes about revealing her creative hack: peel-and-stick flexible molding. She slowly ripped away the adhesive backing and applied the bendy trim over her pencil lines, then used scissors to cut the ends when she was ready to move onto the next shape. “It was basically like one big sticker,” she says. 

Step 3: Seal the Deal

To hide any visible gaps, Yen coated the edges of the molding with caulk and then went over them with a sanding block, ridding the surface of any putty residue. Finally, she swathed them in white chalk paint (no primer necessary). “I wanted a matte, softer finish so that it would accentuate the molding,” she says. As the doors were drying, she propped them up near a wall and, in that very moment, another genius idea struck her: These doors would also make chic room dividers. But that’s a project for another day.

Step 4: Double Up on Your Hardware

Embellishing is nice and all, but if you really don’t want bifolds to look like bifolds, add four knobs to the fronts instead of just a single pair. Yen added two dainty brass knobs to each side, creating the illusion that they all swing open rather than slide.

Step 5: Hit the Track

When it came to mounting the doors, Yen called in her contractor. Her fear? That they wouldn’t sit flat if she were to attempt to lock them in place herself. The splurge was worth it: Her staring contest with her clothes is finally over.

The post All Your Basic Bifold Closet Doors Need Is a Little Squiggly Molding appeared first on domino.

Color theory has long suggested that if you paint your bedroom walls a shade of creamy white or sage green, you will feel calmer and thereby more likely to fall asleep with ease. But what if we told you it doesn’t actually matter what color you paint your bedroom, as long as that space is monochrome? Take it from Garance Doré, who chose a deep blue shade for her space because she is “obsessed with sleep.” “L.A. (and my house!) is all about brightness and sunlight, and sometimes you just want to truly chill down,” she writes. The French photographer, writer, and O.G. influencer combined black out shades, the color Dark Night by Sherwin Williams, and sheets dyed by Flaneur to complete her monochrome scene. She wanted to take it one step further with a matching carpet, but her designer, Sarah Sherman Samuel, told her to pause on the idea.

The lesson is: Pick a color (any color) and really go for it—on the walls, the ceiling, the bedding, the window treatments. The result is nothing short of serene, especially if you opt for a deep jewel tone or dusty pastel. Lately, we’ve been seeing what some designers have been calling “color drenching” play out in our favorite bedrooms. Accent walls were already on the outs, and now it seems the breakup is official. Here are six tips for pulling off the soothing scene. 

Keep the Paint Brush Moving

The idea of selecting one swatch for the walls, another one for the ceiling, and another for the trim can feel overwhelming. So make your life a little easier and cover every surface in the same hue and finish. With the exception of the window sashes, every flat surface in this bedroom, designed by Sally Breer, is a dark rosy pink, including the drywall bump-out the designer incorporated for leaning art. 

Add Fabric to Unusual Places

Renters can get in on the look, too, with this temporary solution. Designer Hugh Long enveloped his client’s bed in the same raspberry pink fabric from Gray Lines Linen that he used for her actual bedspread, resulting in a cocoonlike corner that she can take with her when she moves. 

Find a Perfect Match

Up the tranquility of a soft blue like this by really committing to it. While it takes more time to find bedding or, say, a lampshade that matches the tone of your paint choice perfectly, it is worth the extra effort. Feeling inspired by this space by New York design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero, Domino’s style editor, Julia Stevens, decided to paint her entire studio apartment in a similar shade. “It was one of the reasons I went all in and used blue bedding, too,” she says.

Amplify the Effect With Mirrors

Laura Yeh wanted to feel “wrapped in color” in her bedroom. Mission accomplished: Her punchy choice of Farrow & Ball’s Breakfast Room Green looks like it goes on for infinity thanks to the clever mirror placement in the corner. 

Bring Curtains Into the Fold

After a few trips to the Benjamin Moore store and many samples painted up on the wall, designer Tamarra Younis of Union of Art landed on the color Bali, “an elegant minty tone,” for this client’s small guest bedroom. She worked hand in hand with her drapery fabricator to create coordinating curtains that hang from custom valance boxes wrapped in the same color. Ceiling tracks who? “By using the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling drapery, we were able to give the room a sense of grandeur and glamour,” she says. 

Get Weird With Your Color Choice

Murky greens, blue-blacks, and earthy purples might not be universally popular, but they tick the moody box, which matches the energy of the theatrical scene you’re setting out to create. In fact, they read as romantic when you top them off with a canopy or linen roman shades.

The post The Paint Trend That’s Arguably Helping Us Sleep Better appeared first on domino.

Nothing says “cozy” quite like a set of flannel sheets. For Elizabeth and Lindsay Fair of Salem, Massachusetts–based interior design firm Dwell October, the style evokes a particular sense of feeling snug on cold nights. “Our mom put flannel sheets on our beds every winter growing up, so [they] have such a nostalgic, comforting association for us,” the sisters say. A great transitional fabric, flannel is heavier than virtually every other popular bedding material, so it is sure to keep you warm as fall and winter approach. For Boston interior designer Annsley McAleer, flannel sheets also do more than just function well in cold weather; they can play up a ski-house vibe. She pairs them with vintage quilts and hand-knit blankets. 

If you’re on the hunt for a set of the best flannel sheets to turn your bedroom into a comfy retreat, look no further. Here are our favorites, in a variety of colors and price points. Trust us—even the chilliest nights are no match for these. 

Our Favorites

• Best overall: Boll & Branch Flannel Sheet Set
• Best budget: Mellanni Flannel Sheet Set
• Best organic: Coyuchi Cloud Brushed Flannel Sheets
• Best Supima cotton: L.L.Bean Premium Supima Flannel Sheets
• Best speckled: Brooklinen Brushed Flannel Core Sheet Set
• Best stripes: Garnet Hill Cozy Ticking Flannel Bedding
• Best gingham: Serena & Lily Belvedere Flannel Sheet Set
• Best blend: Piglet in Bed Flannel Tencel Sheets

Best Overall: Boll & Branch Flannel Sheet Set

Flannel Sheet Set, Boll & Branch ($299)

Shop

Boll & Branch has been in business for a decade, working with family-owned farms and factories to produce its bedding and bath. The brand uses GOTS-certified organic cotton, and its products are Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified, and that extends to its Portgual-made flannel sheets. Supersoft in hand, these sheets expertly balance coziness and breathability, a rarity among the flannel set. The brushing process, as well as a step of triple shearing, reduces visible pilling, and the weight is light enough to please even warm sleepers. Pillowcases come with a stylish envelope closure; topstitched fitted sheets are designed with deep pockets; and there are three neutrals and a number of patterns to choose from to suit your style.

Best Budget: Mellanni Flannel Sheet Set

Mellanni Cotton Flannel Bed Sheets, Queen, Amazon ($52 was $70)

Shop

More than 10,000 people have reviewed this well-priced set, with 65% of buyers rating it a 5-star purchase. The sheets are available in eight colors—ranging from pale pink to inky navy blue—and two patterns, including a classic plaid and a holiday-ready snowflake print. We also love that they come in the rarer Twin XL size, making them a great option for anyone outfitting a dorm room. They’re made from 100% cotton, and more than one reviewer crowned these the best sheets ever.

Best Organic: Coyuchi Cloud Brushed Flannel Sheets

Cloud Brushed Organic Flannel Sheet Set, Queen, Coyuchi ($268)

Shop

These sheets, which come in four neutral shades, deliver on every front. In addition to weighing in at 6 ounces, so they’ll keep you extra-toasty, they’re Made Safe certified. What does that mean for you? You’ll drift off to sleep knowing the sheets you’re tucked into are free of carcinogens, heavy metals, and toxic solvents. It also means the cotton they’re made from—grown in Turkey and woven in Portugal—is free of dangerous pesticides. The brushed finish helps keep pilling to a minimum, which will make you reach for them year after year. 

Best Supima Cotton: L.L.Bean Premium Supima Flannel Sheets

Premium Supima Flannel Sheets, Queen, L.L. Bean ($219)

Shop

L.L.Bean is headquartered in Maine, a state that takes winter seriously. Is it any wonder, then, that the company would be a go-to option for high-quality flannel sheets? These are made from Supima cotton, which is both stronger and softer than regular cotton and less likely to pill. Shoppers can’t get enough of these sheets, with 94% of buyers saying they’d recommend them. The six hues take their inspiration from wintry beach scenes, with shades like Sandbar (a goes-with-everything neutral) and Bluegrass (the perfect muted aqua). 

Best Speckled: Brooklinen Brushed Flannel Core Sheet Set

Brushed Flannel Core Sheet Set, Queen, Brooklinen ($209)

Shop

These speckled sweeties from Brooklinen—available in moss, midnight, and black and white—look straight out of a cool Berkshires hotel (perhaps one blanketed in snow). The extremely soft material is brushed to make it extra snuggly without being too weighty, and the 100% cotton flannel is made in Portgual. The delicate pattern would work well with solids or other prints, and review after review say they hold up to cold weather without things getting too steamy.

Best Stripes: Garnet Hill Cozy Ticking Flannel Bedding

Garnet Hill Cozy Ticking Flannel Bedding, Queen Flat Sheet, Garnet Hill ($79)

Shop

In 1973, the founders of Garnet Hill traveled to Europe and fell in love with a set of English flannel sheets. Unable to find flannels of comparable quality at home in the U.S., they set out to make their own, and decades later Garnet Hill is a go-to for flannel sheets. Manufactured in a family-operated German mill, these sheets come in all kinds of colors, including chic pastels and earth tones. But we’re partial to the ticking stripe pattern, which comes in colors like sage and amber. “I think colors such as moss green, ochre, brown, and even gray-blue make for an unusual but unmistakably wintry palette,” says McAleer. Made in Portugal, they’re brushed multiple times for guaranteed softness, and with a lighter weight of 5.8 ounces, they would work in fall and spring just as well as winter. They’re 100% cotton, and we also love that you can get a matching duvet for a cohesive look. 

Best Gingham: Serena & Lily Belvedere Flannel Sheet Set

Belvedere Flannel Sheet Set, Queen, Serena & Lily ($262 was $328)

Shop

Leave it to Serena & Lily to take a timeless pattern like gingham and make chic flannel bedding with it. Made from the same material as editor-favorite pajamas, Serena & Lily’s Belvedere set is as prim as the material can get. Made with 100% brushed cotton, these sheets, like a lot of the best flannels, are made in Portugal and are Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified, one of the most widely recognized certifications to make sure linens are free of substances that can be irritating to skin and harmful to health. If you like a more classic French blue, there’s a gingham in that, too, or you can go for straight white.

Best Blend: Piglet in Bed Flannel Tencel Sheets

Flannel Tencel Sheets Bundle in Thistle, Twin, Piglet in Bed ($296)

Tencel—a brand of sustainable fabric made from wood pulp—is combined with cotton flannel in Piglet in Bed’s sheets. The soft yet breathable bundle it offers includes a fitted sheet, flat sheet, and pillowcases, plus a duvet cover. We love that the cover features corozo button fastenings and very handy inside corner ties to keep your duvet from slipping around. In addition to great features and colors, these sets are Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified. 

Our Shopping Checklist

Material

In 16th-century Wales, where it’s believed to have originated, flannel was made from wool. Now you can find flannel made from cotton and synthetic fibers as well. Most flannel today gets its texture from a process called brushing, in which a metal brush rubs the fabric to raise fibers from the surface. 

Weave

Unlike cotton sheets, where quality is often associated with a high-thread count, flannel sheets are measured according to weight per ounce. Look for a set with a per-weight heft of about 5 ounces for maximum warmth and durability. 

Care

Flannel sheets can often pill, which is why it’s important to follow the laundering instructions carefully—most manufacturers recommend washing in lukewarm water and then line drying. If you’re placing them in a dryer, set it on very low heat. 

Ask Domino

What’s the best way to prevent pilling?

The first time you wash flannel, add a little bit of white vinegar—a half cup to be precise. This will help the fibers from pilling and keep the colors vibrant. If your flannel sheets are only in use a few months of the year, make sure to shake them out and refold during the spring and summer, which will help loosen any clingy dust or fibers contributing to pilling. 

How long should quality sheets last?

A perk of good flannel sheets is that they’ll get softer (and warmer!) the more they’re washed, though you might see more vibrant colors start to fade. Most experts suggest replacing them after around three years, though that depends on how often you’re using them—a quality set of flannel sheets cared for properly can last four or five years. 

The post The Best Flannel Sheets Are the Bedding Equivalent of Your Favorite Sweater appeared first on domino.

In her 2023 Instagram recap, Blake Lively focused on one particular moment: that time Michael Kors dressed her in a gold sequined jumpsuit to attend his Brooklyn fashion show in September. In addition to photos captured at the event, the Gossip Girl star revealed what she looked like just before she left the house. To no one’s surprise, she’s the epitome of put-together. Her bed, though, is not. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Blake Lively (@blakelively)

Aside from her glistening jumpsuit, there’s a lot to take in in the picture. For starters, Lively is offering us a major glimpse of the New York City bedroom she shares with her husband, Ryan Reynolds. The wide plank floors, massive ceiling beams, and textured taupe walls would have you thinking she’s in Telluride not Tribeca, but similar snapshots of the apartment’s interior confirm the rustic setting is in fact the Manhattan loft the couple bought in 2017. Driving home the relaxed vibe she appears to be going for in the space is an upholstered bed dressed in dreamy linen.

Looking beyond the fact that Lively and Reynolds clearly did not get around to making their bed that day, we zoomed in on her duvet and sheets. Luckily, she tagged a number of brands in the picture so we could easily track down her olive green linen duvet cover from The Citizenry and what looks to be Morrow’s matte sateen sheets in dune or its classic linen offering in bone.

Morrow Soft Goods Sheet Sets

Organic Matte Sateen Sheet Set, Morrow Soft Goods (from $185)

Shop

Heirloom Linen Sheet Set, Queen, Morrow Soft Goods ($349)

Shop

The Citizenry Stonewashed Linen Duvet Cover

Shop

Stonewashed Linen Duvet Cover, The Citizenry ($289)

From a practical standpoint, the pairing makes for an über-comfortable sleeping experience. Linen keeps you cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and it gets softer with each use; sateen, a type of cotton weave, offers a sleek look but is easy to clean. Both materials are soft and breathable all year round, and Morrow’s sateen happens to be organic and shine-free, unlike similar products from other brands. From an aesthetic standpoint, these fabrics look best when loosely layered and slightly fluffed. In other words, they’re ideal for people who don’t always feel like making a perfect bed—celebrities included. 

The post Blake Lively’s Laid-Back Bedding Is a Lesson in Cozy Yet Cooling Sleep appeared first on domino.