Living Space Transformation: Dark to Light

Our apartment feels too dark to me. No matter how many colored pillows I throw onto our sofa or pieces of art on the wall, the dark carpet and large dark furniture pieces really ugg up the space. For months I have been bouncing around ideas of giving our ikea malm dresser, which serves as our entertainment center, a facelift.

Now, I've seen some great "hacks" of these dressers, but I can't bring myself to glam up this piece too much. I don't really want it to stand out, but become more of a classic neutral piece that looks good, but mostly serves it's purpose of holding our tv and our stash of dvds, games, etc.

Enter my most favorite idea. . .

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In addition, in order to tie my natural wood cane back chairs in with our living space a bit better I am thinking of covering them in this fabric. I do not want to paint the gorgeous wood and I figure black and white fabric will tie into the overall room quite well and then I can add a splash of color with some awesome colored throw pillows.

What do you think? Do the drawers pop too much? Am I headed in the completely opposite and wrong direction with such a stark look? Any ideas would be most helpful.