Sheet Music Decoupaged Pax Room Divider

When we moved into our loft we decided that a Pax wardrobe from Ikea would be a perfect way to divide the living room and bedroom. The problem is that Ikea doesn't intend for Pax to be a room divider, it's meant to go against a wall, so the back was unfinished. In the short term when I assembled the units I turned the flimsy cardboard like veneer that's intended to finish the back inside of the wardrobe (with the same colour as the outside) around so that the back of the wardrobe (on the living room side) was the same colour as the rest of the wardrobe. Inspired by the Hobbit wall we decided to finished the backside of the wardrobe by decoupaging sheet music. We choose sheet music as it's a large part of both of our lives but it could have been a dictionary, novel, poetry, newspaper, maps, or anything else on paper.

What you'll need.
Some sort of boards to create a solid backing for the decoupage application.
Screws to attach the board
Primer (we used Kilz as it's inexpensive and does a great job)
The paper, whatever you choose to use.
White glue (we bought lapage in the four litre bottle for $15)
Foam brushes (get lots of them, they're cheap and they'll break if you're doing the 200+ sheets like we did)
'''Polycrylic'''
Trim (metal, wood, whatever you want)
Adhesive (to attach the trim: we used liquid nails)

Step 1: Strengthen and Prep the Surface

The boards cost a meagre $8 each from home depot. It's a inexpensive fiberboard that'll be covered anyhow and it functions to provide rigidity and a smooth surface for the decoupage. We were covering three meters in total. We have four units though, to at 50cm and two at 100cm. We had the folks at home depot to cut the boards (and they didn't charge us for the cuts). We needed three boards in total.

We pre-drilled the holes about every 6-8 inches. You can't just screw it in as it'll crush the board. Take the time and pre-drill.

We screwed the boards in and we're relieved to find that they were cut perfectly and fit as they should.

We mounted all the boards and than vacuumed and wiped it down in preparation for the primer.

We primed it with Kilz primer. The only thing we should have done is taped the joins with masking tape first and then painted. Then the wall would have been seamless. The wet paper likes to get into the smallest crack and bubble.

Comments

[mimicotton]

I like your idea of such room divider, seems cool. By the way, lovely cat.

[h3idi]

ikea says bolt 'em for liability. it's up to you.

[michi430]

Awesome job!  I'm curious about the stability of the shelves.  I'm thinking of doing something similar but Ikea told me the wardrobes need to be bolted to the wall.  Did you secure them in anyway?  Do they seem fine on there own?

Thanks!

[wkelly]

I guess it would depend how wide it was. Ours is 3 meters and it's totally stable. Once you have the wardrobe together and stuff in it there's no way it'll move. Adding the boards to the back of it increased its rigidity as well. 

[spottylover]

Very cool idea.  Super cute kitty and I love that couch :-)