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You are here: Home / Repurposing and Upcycling / IKEA Rast Hack Trash and Recycling Center

IKEA Rast Hack Trash and Recycling Center

January 13, 2016 By Karen Cooper 11 Comments

In my former days as a lawyer, I worked long hours. There was one month in which I worked every day except one – because it was a national holiday.

One day, I checked my email and found that my dear friend, Cynthia, who also worked at the law firm with me, had gone into my office and responded to an email from Dear Husband for me, with this message:

email about my love of recycling - thediybungalow.com

That was in 1997.

So, you can see that I’ve always been a fan of recycling and repurposing.

When Hickory Hardware and PPG The Voice of Color asked me to participate in their IKEA Rast Hack contest, I knew immediately what I’d want to hack that dresser into: a trash and recycling center.

Completed IKEA Rast Hack Trash and Recycling Center in kitchen - thediybungalow.com

IKEA Rast Hack Trash and Recycling Center - thediybungalow.comHere’s how I turned the IKEA Rast into a trash and recycling center:

Materials:

IKEA Rast dresser

Two 1×2 or similar pieces of wood. I used scrap wood for this. They need to be cut to 11 3/4 in. long.

Tape measure

Drill

Wood screws

Drawer hardware: I used two of Hickory Hardware’s 13-in. Zephyr Oil-Rubbed Bronze Appliance Pull.

Two 10-inch wide trash bins

PPG-The Voice of Color Seal Grip Primer:

PPG SealGrip Primer - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

If you are painting your Rast a color, have the paint folks tint the primer one shade lighter than your paint color. That makes painting easier (fewer coats needed – yay!).

PPG-The Voice of Color paint: Speedhide latex paint in semi-gloss, in “Stepping Stone.”

paintbrushes

Here’s how I built my IKEA Rast hack trash and recycling center:

First, start putting together the Rast according to the instructions enclosed with it. When the instructions tell you to attach the middle support piece of wood, stop here. We’re going to change this.

Rather than attach the support piece flat horizontally as the instructions note, I attached it horizontally but upright across the back. This change will allow the drawer you are going to build to slide into the dresser without hitting the support.

Here’s what it looks like:

New support for back - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

To do this, you have to measure the spacing between the holes that IKEA provided, then, using the hole provided by the back edge, measure where to drill new holes for the support in its new position.

drill hole for new support - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

You’re just transposing the holes from vertical position to horizontal, if that makes sense.

Drill the hole for the dowel first, being careful not to drill all the way through the side of the dresser. (Tip: mark the depth of the hole on your drill bit with painter’s tape, so you don’t drill any deeper than needed.)

Dowels for support - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

Then drill the hole between the two dowel holes for the screw that will be used. That hole should go all the way through the wood.

Once you drill the holes in the new position (vertically positioned, rather than horizontally as already provided by IKEA), then insert the dowels and put the support in place. Then build the rest of the frame, attaching the newly positioned support with the screw provided in the hole you drilled.

Rast put together with support in place - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

OK, time to build the drawer. What I am doing here is building two drawers and attaching them together to make them into one big, deep drawer for the bins. Make sense? M’kay. Here’s what I did.

First, put together the first drawer according to the official IKEA instructions. Next, put together the second drawer, but WITHOUT the bottom of it. Make it an open-bottomed drawer. Got it?

Next, attach the two 1×2 pieces, cut to size, to the front of the bottom drawer, like this:

Add supports for the second drawer - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

Use wood screws to attach the supports (I used 1/2-inch screws for the wood scraps I used) to the front of the bottom drawer.

Next, position the bottomless drawer you built next to the bottom drawer with the supports – so that, if you stood it up, one would be on top of the other. Position it so that the supports are flush against the back of the front of the bottomless drawer, and push the drawer fronts together so there is no gap between them.

Screw the supports into the back of the drawer front.

Attach middle drawer to support - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

You should now have one big drawer!

You made one big drawer - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

You don’t need supports on the back side of the drawer because the drawer is going to fit into the rails on the sides of the dresser. Those rails will support the back of the drawer.

I decided to just use one handle pull for the big drawer. I had to drill new holes for the pull to fit, and I filled the other drawer holes with wood filler.

Next, I primed and painted everything. In retrospect, I have to admit that I would have primed and painted all the pieces first, then put the Rast together, but hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

The primer does a nice job of sealing the wood and covering up the knots.

Primer tinted to lighter shade of paint - IKEA Rast Hack - thediybungalow.com

I used PPG Speedhide latex semi-gloss paint; the color is called “Stepping Stone.” After one coat of primer and two coats of paint, I attached the hardware.

IKEA Rast Hack Trash and Recycling Center - thediybungalow.com

I used one handle for the handle for the drawer and one as a dispenser for trash bags. The shelf above the drawer is actually the third drawer front I didn’t use, resting on the rails for the drawer that should be there. It’s the perfect storage spot for extra trash bags.

This trash and recycling center would be great in a home office or craft area!

Learn how I made this IKEA Rast Hack Trash and Recycling Center - thediybungalow.com

I made this hack as part of a contest hosted by Hickory Hardware and PPG The Voice of Color. (Voting is now closed.)

Big thanks to Jimmy at PPG Architectural Coatings on Marietta St. in Atlanta, who made paint and primer magic happen; to PPG – The Voice of Color for the paint and primer; and to Hickory Hardware for providing the pulls and Rast to hack.

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Filed Under: DIY, Repurposing and Upcycling, Sponsored Posts and Giveaways 11 Comments

About Karen Cooper

Hi! I'm Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer” - I traded in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY adventures. Join me for DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organizing projects and tips as I transform a 1929 Tudor bungalow into our home. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.

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Comments

  1. Cynthia says

    January 13, 2016 at 7:24 pm

    Very, very clever. And you must have a very clever and amusing friend. 🙂

    Reply
    • Karen Cooper says

      January 13, 2016 at 9:00 pm

      Thank you! Yes, I hear she is quite funny. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Sadie Seasongoods says

    February 3, 2016 at 7:25 am

    LOVE this!! Would love it if you’d join us at Talk of the Town, the new link party that I’m cohosting. 🙂

    Reply
    • Karen Cooper says

      February 3, 2016 at 3:26 pm

      Thank you! I will link up!!

      Reply
  3. Molly says

    March 5, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    How the heck do you replace the spool of garbage bags without removing the pull?

    Reply
    • Karen Cooper says

      March 5, 2016 at 4:51 pm

      Good question! I actually only screwed one side of that handle to the top of the chest, so you just have to swivel the handle over to replace the roll! Thank you!!

      Reply
  4. Frances says

    April 12, 2016 at 11:49 am

    This is such a clever idea, and a brilliant tutorial. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    Reply
    • Karen Cooper says

      April 13, 2016 at 12:32 am

      Thank you!!

      Reply
  5. Leah says

    July 11, 2017 at 6:30 pm

    What length of handle did you use? And did you use the pre-drilled holes that came standard in the Rast dresser drawer??

    Reply
    • Karen Cooper says

      July 13, 2017 at 3:07 pm

      I can’t remember the handle length (and I gave the project to a friend who wanted it!), but it was long. No, I didn’t use the pre-drilled holes. I filled those and drilled new ones. Thanks, Leah!!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dresser repurpose ideas into something new says:
    September 16, 2016 at 5:31 am

    […] Have you ever considered turning a dresser into a recycling center like this one on Dogs Don’t Eat Pizza? […]

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer,” because I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. This blog is all about DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organization. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.




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A "recovering lawyer," I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home. Read More…

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