DIY Ombre Ikea Abacus Hack

When we visited London back in September, one of Airbnb apartments where we stayed had  an Abacus. As soon as Brody saw it, he was obsessed with pushing the beads and spinning them back and forth. When we returned stateside, we headed to Ikea to buy one. 

At $10, it was a great deal, but the primary colors were not my cup of tea. I came across this kids room on Visual Vocabularie and it inspired me to give our abacus a little paint job. 

It's a quick, easy, and oddly therapeutic little DIY that can be finished in the period of a long nap. That's how I pick DIY projects these days :)

Here's what you need to get started

• A paint brush
• 6 Bottles of paint in varying colors of a the same hue
• An abacus (I used this one from Ikea, If you don't have an ikea nearby, this one is similar)
• Painters Tape (I like FrogTape )

The Details

1. Tape the metal bars. You will be painting the beads without removing them from the abacus.
2. Organize your paint from lightest to darkest. It helps to number them (#1 being the lightest, #6 being the darkest)
3. Paint the top row with bottle #1
4. Mix Paint #1 & paint #2 to create the color for the second row
5. Paint the third row color #2 
6. Mix Paint #2 & paint #3 to create the color for the fourth row
7. Repeat all the way down the Abacus. 

A few notes

• I found that mixing the colors, as outlined above, created a beautiful ombre flow. 
• Most colors took three coats (thankfully they dry fast).
• I used Acrylic craft paint, but if your little one likes to chew on the beads, you may want to investigate different types of paint. 

We are working on creating a minute playroom for Brody and I can't wait to put this in there.

Happy DIY-ing!