Apartment Upgrade: Ikea Besta Burs Desk

I’m not the best at interior design. For example, I chose to have a California king-sized bed in my small apartment bedroom, meaning there is little room for other furniture. Until about six months ago, I was doing my makeup in the morning on the floor of my living room. Shameful. I finally decided enough was enough, and on a trip to see family over Christmas, I decided to buy a desk from Ikea to serve as a makeup table/storage unit. I decided on the Besta Burs desk because it was small enough to fit, but large enough to be useful. It retails for $199.00.

Once I got it back to my apartment, I was faced with the age-old conundrum of Ikea assemblage. Fortunately, I had a friend who was willing to help, and we made it through alive. When we were done, I was so pleased with my new desk!

As a blogger, I am constantly in need of an acceptable photo background. Since you are currently reading a beauty/lifestyle blog, I’m sure you’re aware of the current obsession with marble. I love the chic, classic, light look of marble in the background of my product photos, but marble is expensive! Therefore, I turned to my trusty friend contact paper.

I went to Amazon and found this DC fix adhesive film for less than 10 bucks and pulled the trigger. Once it arrived, I grabbed an X-acto knife and a credit card and got started. The paper was wide enough to cover the width of my tabletop plus the sides. I stuck the paper on the skinny edge of the table and started to pull off the paper backing.

It’s so important to use your credit card at this point! As you peel back the sticker paper smooth the adhesive down onto the desk surface with the credit card, making sure you get all the bubbles out! Keep going, slowly, until you reach the end. Make sure you give yourself enough extra sticker on the end to cover the edge, and then snip off the excess with the X-acto knife.

Then comes the trimming! It’s much easier to fold excess under an edge and out of sight than it is to cut too much of the film off. Remember, the credit card is your best friend! If you happen to get a bubble, don’t panic. What I did was pierce the bubble with a needle and then credit-card the air out. You can’t see the hole, and the bubble is gone!

I love my Ikea Besta Burs upgrade, and it was so easy! What do you think of my upgraded makeup desk? I know my pup Luna approves 🙂