Wait Until You See These Built In Bookshelves – IKEA Hack

Dreaming of the look of custom built in bookshelves? Take a look at this IKEA hack and get the look of custom built-ins on a budget.

I’m back friend!

I took the last two weeks off from blogging to…

Well?

Catch my breath.

Maybe you felt it too?

If you know me even a teeny bit by now…then you already know that sending kids back to school is no small thing for me.

I am not good with endings of any sort…

especially Summer.

And yet…as we know all too well –

Time slows down for no one.

So, I softened my grip on Summer’s slow dance, took a deep breath and bounced into the new season’s breakdance and sent these three sisters off for their first days of school on Tuesday.

While I have my personal thoughts on finding your Fall rhythm and creating an Autumn atmosphere in your home…

Those flutterings of Fall feelings and soul sentiments that I want to share with you…will have to wait until next week!

Because?

Because I am SO EXCITED about our most recent budget friendly DIY home improvement.

You might remember this post from last year, when I painted our front door and the storm door...and the trim in all black during the second day of school when I was home alone for the first time in forever.

Yep, this painted front door project was the perfect project last year during this time of back to school beginnings.

Because, historically it seems that during this first week of back to school?

I like to keep busy.

What I have discovered over the years for myself, is that when I am feeling weepy or a little down, off or just plain out of sorts?

The best thing for me is to get busy by cleaning, organizing or creating something fresh that helps me start to feel more excited and less sad.

In other words?

It’s putting skin on some of the the best advice I have ever been given:

You have to ACT your way into a new way of FEELING.

You can’t FEEL your way into a new way of ACTING.

Which brings me to the thing I am so excited about.

Our brand new Billy Bookcases from IKEA turned into the built in bookcases of my home office dreams!!

Now, to be clear…Shawn and our dear neighbor receive FULL CREDIT for all of the busy bee building that it took to turn these budget bookcases into custom built in brilliance!

The timing for this project was perfect.

Because, Shawn and our neighbor completed this IKEA hack, just in time for me to send the girls off to school and in turn enjoy a quiet brand new home office all to myself.

Which was ideal, because I was able to take my sad school bus self and dive into cleaning and organizing all the things…and all of that action…helped me to feel better. 🙂

Ok then friend!

Let’s get on with it shall we?

You may recall from this post about my favorite paint colors or this Christmas home tour post, that this is what my home office used to look like…

Are you ready to see what this wall in my home office looks like now?

Remember, with most home improvement projects…

It has to get worse, before it can get better.

Now, are you ready to see the IKEA Billy Bookcase hack?

Here she is!!

I know.

I can hardly believe that this is what the wall in my home office used to look like…

And now it looks like this –

With IKEA bookcases that look custom!

Now, because Shawn transformed these IKEA book shelves into custom built in’s…(and not me)

This post is not going to be a step by step in depth tutorial with all the measurements.

Because, lets face it.

Numbers are not my jam.

However, this IKEA hack post is all about inspiration and how to make a beautiful statement on a budget.

Because creating and decorating on a dime IS totally my jam.

As always, if anything I share inspires you or you have a specific question about anything at anytime.

You can always just ASK ME HERE.

And I will write you back in an email with the answers to your questions, because that is what I am here for. 🙂

And now?

Prepare for the flood of pictures that tells the story of how this wall, (that I stared at for years and years, dreaming of built in bookcases)…became a home office remodel reality of my dreams.

My home office remodel all began with a trip to IKEA in early August to purchase 3 of these Billy Bookcases.

(The Billy Bookcases are $89 each – hello budget built in bookshelves!)

I am going to refer to Shawn and our neighbor as S&S contracting for fun in this post. 🙂

S&S contracting started by building the 3 bookcases, that I so lovingly picked up and placed in the middle of the garage so they would get annoyed with walking around them and just build them already. HA!

Wait Until You See This Built In Bookshelf – IKEA Hack

Then, they built the platform with 2×3’s for the bookcases to stand on.

Next, they used molly bolts to install the frame for the sides of trim to attach to the the walls without studs.

Nest, they added more trim to fill in the gaps between each bookcase.

Recognize that new area rug from Target?

It was one of the items I listed in my last post of “What I’m Loving Right Now.”

And then it was time to sand, caulk, spackle, prime and paint!

The Ikea Billy Bookcases come with holes on the sides of the bookshelves so that you can move and adjust the heights of the shelves.

While this is convenient…it is not pretty. 🙂

Once I decided where I wanted the shelves to be placed (and knowing that I won’t be able to move them in the future) we used this Dry Dex Spackling to cover the holes on the sides of the bookcases.

Next, S&S gave me the job of priming the bookcases.

I used the Sherwin Willams Extreme Bond Primer to paint all of the bookcase surfaces.

This is SUPER important because the IKEA bookcases are made of laminate. If you do not prime the laminate, the paint will peel right off!

In other words?

If you decide to try your own IKEA Billy Bookcase Hack at home?

Do NOT skip this step!

Let’s talk PAINT COLOR of the Built In Bookcases!

I would be lying if I said this paint selection was easy for me.

One thing I have learned and recommend is not to rush a paint selection decision.

Another hot tip for selecting paint for a project or room?

Bring in some of the textiles that you plan to use in the room. Selecting a paint color that will compliment the textiles is easier that selecting textiles to go with a paint color.

As you know, I already had selected this new area rug from Target and I plan to keep my blush desk chair, pair of blush velvet ottomans and my white desk.

Knowing some of the textiles and accent colors of the furnishings in the room, helped me to pick out the paint color of the IKEA bookcases.

After taking some time to consider a little trial and error…

I decided on a rather new paint color by Sherwin Williams from their Designer Color Collection.

The color of the IKEA bookcases is Serenely by Sherwin Williams, pictured below.

I bought one gallon of Serenely by Sherwin Williams in a semigloss finish, in order to give the bookcases a more enamel look.

I also bought another gallon of Serenely by Sherwin Williams in an egg shell finish, because I knew I wanted to paint the walls the same color but without the shine of a semigloss finish.

You might remember when we installed this shiplap ceiling, you can see the before and after HERE in this post.

The shiplap is painted in Alabaster by Sherwin Williams.

I decided to paint the trim below the bookcases as well as the tray ceiling around the shiplap ceiling, in the same color as the bookcases, Serenely, but in the egg shell finish to match the walls of the room. The rest of the room trim is painted in Pure White by Sherwin Williams.

S&S contracting also ripped out the shorter base board and replaced it with taller baseboards.

Did I mention S&S are amazing?

Love you honey. 🙂

The new and wider baseboard is a small detail that makes SUCH a big difference!

Now back to these built in bookcases!

You probably noticed by now, that we installed doors to the IKEA Billy Bookcases.

These cabinet doors are also from IKEA and are compatible and made to fit the Billy Bookcases.

I bought 6 of these OXBERG Doors from IKEA in white. ($45 each)

The Oxberg doors also come in black and birch veneer and they come with small knobs which we did not use.

We installed these brushed gold semi circle or half moon cabinet pulls from Amazon and installed them on each OXBERG cabinet door.

So – what do you think friend?

Now, do you see why I was so excited to share this IKEA hack with you?

Talk about falling in love with my first ever IKEA hack!

Lets break down the budget of what we bought to build this custom look from IKEA bookshelves.

3 Billy Bookcases at $89 each = $267 plus tax

6 Oxberg Doors at $45 each = $270 plus tax

3 sets of Half Moon Cabinet Pulls (2 in a pack) at $18.99 each = $56.97 plus tax

Adding up the bookshelves, cabinets doors and new pulls brings you to $593.97 plus tax.

Factor in the paint, wood trim, base boards, supplies etc – this home office remodel is under $1,000!

Let’s look at one last Before & After of these budget built in bookshelves one more time!

And now?

The fun really begins…

The decorating!!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for all the finishing touches that will help put a bow on this home office remodel!

I have to say – it turned out even better than I hoped!

Would LOVE to hear in the comments what YOU think!

Living on a prayer,

Heather

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