Kristin took pictures as she built and so graciously agreed to share her detailed instructions with you — leave her some love in the comments and I’d love to hear what your favorite IKEA pieces are… to use or to hack
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Rustic Modern IKEA Hack Bookshelf
by reader Kristin
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I had seen
I wanted 2 matching bookshelves, one for each side of my dining hutch.
I purchased 2
Note: My original plan was to purchase the 70” high ones but I accidentally bought the 89” high ones (which turned out to be a lucky mistake as I built a 3rd smaller version with the left overs).
I cut each side piece 31 1/2” inches from each end, leaving a 25” leftover piece from the middle. So I have 6 pieces at this point.
Note: If you only wanted to make one shelf you could but the IKEA side units do not have the “cross supports” equally distributed so you would have to be okay with them being at different heights on your one bookshelf.
In order to be able to attach them to my top piece I added an extra 1” x 2” screwed across each piece. I cut this exactly the size I needed to fit my top.
I primed those and then spray painted them all black.
For the 2 larger shelves I bought 4
I bought a 12” x 8’ pine board for the tops. I had Home Depot cut it into two 37” pieces and then had my leftover 22” piece (perfect size for my smaller unit). This board was the most expensive piece at $40.
I bought enough 1” x 2” boards (some 6’, some 8’) to make the borders around the tops. I used wood glue and the KREG tool to attach all the pieces.
I primed and stained the top pieces and all the shelves.
I also spray painted the ends of the IKEA shelves the same black.
I bought
I installed the shelves (to help get the width correct), screwed the sides to the tops, attached the cross bars, and I was done!
I use the 3rd smaller shelf as a TV shelf in the master bath.
Thanks, Kristin! Remodelaholics, check out more IKEA hacks here:
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