DIY with my Favourite IKEA Products

Oftentimes when people think of DIYing furniture, they automatically think that means building from scratch. I'm here to tell you that you can create beautiful, custom, unique to you pieces of furniture without being a carpenter because DIY can also mean, transforming, modifying, repurposing, altering... really anything you do to make it your own!

I'm a mom of three girls and time is at a premium so whenever I can save myself time and energy, I take it! That's why I often start my woodworking projects with IKEA furniture and Cabinetry because it is such a timesaver:

• Most IKEA Furniture and Cabinets are available in a variety of sizes which makes it easy to find the ideal size for my space, 
• It's easy to assemble, 
• Since I have to build it myself, it's a great time to make changes and modifications to create the product that I want in the end,
• It's inexpensive.

Here are some of my favourite IKEA Hacks and DIY's!

Transform an IKEA Tarva Dresser into a Stylish, Modern Piece of Furniture 

I wanted to add some more storage to this closet so, I transformed a very inexpensive IKEA Tarva pine dresser with stain, paint, and some DIY drawer pulls to suit the Industrial styling of the rest of the closet. Before I assembled it I stained all of the drawer pieces with a weathered-look stain and painted all the rest of the pieces with a charcoal coloured chalk style paint. To create the leather pulls, I purchased a leather belt at the thrift store, cut it into 5 ½ pieces and punched a hole on the top and bottom of each piece with a leather punch. Then, I folded each piece into a loop, threaded a brass bolt through the two holes, and attached it to the dresser drawer by securing it with a nut. It was such an easy DIY that gave this dresser a fun detail! 

Click here for see the full DIY

Easy Window Seat Hack with IKEA Kallax Shelves

This window seat was really as simple as assembling IKEA furniture. For this project, I purchased a couple of IKEA Kallax Shelves (one of the long ones and two of the square ones), I assembled them according to the directions and lined them up along the wall below the window. With some storage baskets from IKEA and some velvet floor cushions from Urban Outfitters, my daughter has this cozy window seat that she loves so much!

Click here for see the full DIY

DIY Projects using IKEA Sektion Kitchen Cabinets

The Sektion Kitchen Cabinet line from IKEA is my go-to for DIY cabinetry solution in my home. With a variety of sizes for width and depth, it makes it so easy to find a "base" in the size you need so you can get to the fun part of customizing it for your space and really make it your own, unique creation. 

DIY Garage Storage

For this project, I wanted to build a workbench and for this space, three 24" wide IKEA kitchen cabinets fit the space exactly how I wanted. In this case, I really just used the cabinets as sold by IKEA and then I made a DIY framed Pegboard for extra storage and organization. 

Click here for see the full DIY

Organize Recycling & Create a Family Command Center in Your Mudroom

This is one of my favourite hacks, a DIY recycling organization station made with inexpensive IKEA Sektion Cabinets. For this space, I used two 15" x 15" IKEA kitchen cabinets with drawers and assembled them as per the instructions. To create a functional recycling space, I added fabric bins and recycling bags to the drawers and made some labels for each drawer using my Cricut. 

Click here for see the full DIY

Build a Dining Bench from Kitchen Cabinets

When we designed our breakfast nook, I wanted to create a built-in looking dining bench but make it moveable so that we could change up this space easily in the future. Here's how I turned some Ikea Kitchen Cabinets into a simple dining bench. For this project, I used IKEA Sektion Refrigerator Cabinets (because they're deeper) and then I created a base out of 2x4 lumber and some braces in the middle of the frame. I added some 2" high foam and sewed a simple bench cushion cover. 

Click here for see the full DIY

IKEA DIY DECOR

Make a Jewelry Holder from a Cutlery Tray

Who knew Cutlery Trays could be so versatile? Using a bamboo cutlery tray, similar to the IKEA Variera, I made this beautiful Jewelry holder by adding some paint, knobs and cup hooks!

Click here for see the full DIY

I also made a cute wall shelf that was perfect for my daughter's collectable "treasures" out of a cutlery tray as well!

Have you created your own IKEA hack or transformation? I'd love to hear about it!