Project 1 Living Room

The Situation: In 2011, my parents and I combined two households into one new house. We didn’t have the storage or furniture we needed to make it look nice, and in 2018 we wanted to have a welcoming cozy space for hosting book club and games nights. 

The Challenge: Find a cost-effective design that offers storage, display space, and device/cable management. “Something nice, and not too expensive” – Monty Python and the Holy Grail (though in that context they were talking about a shrubbery)

Before: The space is beautiful, with south-facing windows providing loads of light, hardwood floors, and a gas fireplace. But it looks haphazard. I wanted symmetry in a craftsman-inspired built-in that anchors the room and offers a starting point for the rest of the furniture. But I didn’t want to spend a lot.

I brought in a professional to give us an estimate and showed him a drawing of what I had in mind. He couldn’t do anything close to what I envisioned, and he still wanted $6,000+ for what he offered to cobble together. That was discouraging, so I took my measurements and went to the IKEA website. With some creativity, I was able to bring it all together for less than $1000.

After: The space is balanced and the cabinets provide a counter-top for display and plenty of storage to hide clutter.

How I did it: 

• Measured each side of fireplace (height, depth, width)
• Build a recessed base for the cabinets using 2×4
• Selected two shallow but tall wall cabinets to fit each side of the fireplace
• Selected drawers and glass doors to fit the cabinets
• Determined electrical access needs and installed power bars
• Assembled cabinets and drawers
• Painted glass doors
• Add craftsman-style drawer and door pulls
• Add countertop with recessed access to power bars behind cabinets
• Fill in gaps between the side walls and cabinets with matching fill pieces, and add a toe-kick facade at the bottom. Caulk the bottom with clear caulk to complete the built-in look.

Key Lessons Learned: 

1. The doors I chose were a different colour than the drawers, so I needed to paint them to match the faux wood grain of the Ikea drawers. For my first one, I used artist’s acrylic and a brush, but this method added too much to the surface, which made the doors really tight and the paint would rub off. After thinking on it for a while (too long), I airbrushed the rest in thin layers.

2. I should have sanded and primed the first door so the paint would stick better. I did that for the rest of the doors after learning from the first one.

3. It’s probably not a great idea to learn a new skill (like airbrushing) for a time-sensitive project. After painting and installing the first door, I ended up leaving the rest of the doors off the cabinets for almost a year while I procrastinated (problem-solved) on painting and installing them. Once I got the hang of air-brushing, I really liked the very thin coverage and layering I could achieve. It was pretty easy to get a consistent look with gentle colour and layering adjustments.

4. I should have removed the baseboard from the side of the fireplace. Now there’s this awkward white bit at the bottom. I will have to carefully saw that out or accept looking at it for the rest of my life.

Conclusion

I’m happy with how it all came together, and I finally feel ready to invite people over! With some creativity, a DIY IKEA hack makes it easy to create a custom-built-in look. It is also easy to update by keeping the cabinets and either repainting or installing new drawers and doors. The modular product lines at IkEA mean you can also adjust the configuration with different-sized drawers and doors or leave open shelving.