DIY Painted World Map Mural & Up-Cycled Dresser

We’re bringing you another winning project from the Crafting with the Stars promotion that was hosted on East Coast Creative. The theme for this project was paint and we absolutely love this creation from Love & Renovations. Check out how you can create a similar project for your own home with this step by step tutorial:

We had this Bjursta sideboard from Ikea in our garage for weeks and figured it could live there when we convert it into a family room:

After a brainstorming session one night, we came up with a plan – we were going to up-cycle the dresser and set it up in a high-contrast room. The goal was punchy, modern, and fun. After some debate, we landed on this color palette:

Sunny Side Up by Behr, and Cordite and Totally Black by Home Decorators Collection

We started off with a black wall…

For contrast, we picked out a super rich, mustard yellow for the dresser.

On the walls, we chose to paint a world map on it. We pulled up a good map online and used our projector to get it up on the wall. You can use this idea to create almost any wall mural.

Getting the map painted was surprisingly quick – we just used some small paintbrushes and to outlined larger ones to  fill in. It took about an hour and a half from start to finish, which is way better than we expected.

Once everything was all finished and dry, we decided the sideboard needed a little something extra. So we grabbed some paint in the same color but a different finish (the main part is high gloss, the details are flat), and used the projector again to add some numbers. It’s a super subtle detail, but we love that about it – when you’re looking from straight on, the map is totally the star. But if you shift yourself a little to either side, the numbers suddenly jump out at you.


After the numbers were finished, it was just time to style! We added an Ikea rug to add some pattern..

..added a lamp for some height…

…and then we finished it off with a few accessories and books.

And it looks a little something like this:

This is a perfect example of how a few little DIY projects can completely transform an area of your home. Be sure to check back next week when we feature another winning project from the Crafting with the Stars promotion.