Emily

I’ve always loved galaxies, I think the colours look amazing and I think they’re fascinating, so it was easy to choose them as the inspiration for my chest of drawers. I started by painting the whole thing black and then adding stars and galaxies, for me the colours go so well together.

I initially wanted to do something using chalkboard paint, as I thought it would be really fun to be able to draw on them and customise whenever I wanted to but then came the galaxy idea – mainly because I was wearing my favourite galaxy shoes at the workshop and I thought it would look really good.

I especially like the purple on the drawers, it’s always been my favourite colour and I just think it fits so well.

I’ve really loved being part of this experience with IKEA, I haven’t really done many projects before that have involved me being really creative. I’ve done a little bit of drawing and art here and there, but having the opportunity to combine that with the DIY has been great.

I used to love Lego when I was younger, and assembling the drawers was a little bit like that – fitting it altogether and making it secure. I felt really excited when I first arrived at the workshop and found out that this is what we were doing.

When I have the drawers back they’ll replace my current chest of drawers in my room and will be so useful to store my things.

I think if I was talking to another care experienced young person who was taking part in a similar workshop, I’d say to them just go wild! As long as you have fun with it, it really doesn’t matter!

Watch the video of Emily building her chest of drawers here.