20 hours. That's how long a piece of Ikea furniture, somewhat impulsively acquired, can sit in your foyer without being assembled.
3 hours. That's how long it takes to assemble it [and, let's be fair, to disassemble the furniture it's replacing. And, let's be fairer, to shift all the forgotten gear and storage boxes that had been buried out of sight by the now-disassembled furniture.]
The clock's still running on how long it'll take to find out what to fill the holes with on the kid's new bed. We went for the meatballs, and ended up with the silvery Blimp, the Lords of Ikea having seen fit to dole the awesomely minimalist, little Malm bed in ridiculously small quantities.
Anyway, it looks fine, actually, pushed against the wall. We left off the blue and green netting; what to do with those eight holes in the backboard is no longer a hypothetical.
Previously: What Could Fix This Almost-Cool Ikea Toddler Bed?
Just as soon as my land-lords-to-be get my office finished I'm planning on giving up our second bedroom to the kid and have been thinking about that bed... I'd probably keep the holes but "inspire" (trick?) my wife into sewing some kind of nicer pocket type storage for them.
The kid liked the bed with the tent-like top more, though to be honest, and I'm thinking that whatever it takes to get her out of co-sleeping (attachment parenting be damned, we're getting tired of being kicked at 3am) is worth the aesthetic sacrifice. :)
Slipcover the whole thing. I know you've got it now, but, cool or not, that's the most unwelcoming bed for a kid I've ever seen, and those edges make my skin creep. Even a little bare ankle flopping over the top is gonna feel bad, not to mention what happens when the head hits a corner. Stitch up a padded cover so you don't end up stitching the kid's head. That should solve the hole problem -- in the bed or the kid.
[which is what's happened so far; the kid draped blankets all over the back side and the safety rail. -ed.]
Fill holes with wood putty or epoxy resin, maybe even Gorilla Glue or similar expanding glue. Sand until it's flush. Paint with magnetic or chalkboard paint. Or if you're feeling lazy, just stick some of those cool vinyl wall decorations (Blik, WallCandy, etc.) right over the holes and she probably won't even notice.
[Lazy AND cool? I think we have a winner. The weird plasticky metallic surface won't hold chalkboard paint not at all, I'm afraid. Remind me sometime to tell you a story about trying to paint an Ikea table with chalkboard paint. -ed.]
What about just using a silver metallic Sharpie after using some wood-filler? (test to make sure the Sharpie writes on whatever filler you'd use)
Hope I'm not bringing up a sore subject, but what happened to the bed you were having made?
And if you want another hole filler idea, you could get a sheet of maple or walnut veneer (with the pressure sensitive adhesive) and veneer that whole back panel. Did you keep the guard rail?
Drill lots more holes, then light it from behind with an ultra violet tube light?
you could provide a "pat the bunny" type of experience by providing different textures behind each hole for the kid to explore... sandpaper, fur, velvet, etc...
Thread a massive rubber band through each hole, horizontally. Then she's got four strips to hold pictures and bits of this and that (a la Droog straps).
Even cheaper than the blik is cutting out some shapes from plain white contact paper. you could just use circles, initials, whatever.