Sitting Pretty
This luxury lounger might look like top-dollar decor, but you can make it at home for next to nothing. All you need is a budget IKEA chair and a bit of imagination. The legs get a stunning upgrade from a can of gold spray paint, while the faux fur throw draped over the seat lends the chair a touch of warmth and modern whimsy.
Related: 10 IKEA Favorites Made Better by a DIY Paint Job
Attention Drawer
Upcycled from an IKEA Moppe chest, this DIY apothecary cabinet is a stylish solution for storing CDs, stationery, and personal effects. Re-creating this IKEA hack involves merely attaching wooden legs and a plywood top and base, and covering the bare wood in chalk paint. Metal label pulls affixed to the drawer fronts complete the cabinet's vintage patina, making it a pretty and practical focal point for any room.
Related: Kitchen Cures: The Perfect Solution for Every Unruly Drawer
Industrial Revolution
The perfect addition to a modern-industrial interior, this DIY sconce radiates soft light from its generous perforations. The secret to this sleek design is a stainless steel IKEA Ordning utensil holder with a thrifty lamp kit mounted inside. The assemblage is suspended from a steel flange, and a pipe secures the sconce to its wooden base. Black spray paint lends the lightweight luminary a factory-chic look that's truly one of a kind.
Related: 15 "Under $100" Lighting Solutions for Every Room
A Desk with a View
All work and no play makes for a dull office—but that's not a problem in this playful space. You might never guess that the room's midcentury-modern-inspired desk started with an IKEA shelving unit. The intrepid DIYer behind this IKEA hack lined the shelf's top, bottom, and sides with stained wood boards, then affixed a set of hairpin legs to create a vintage-look work surface. Classic!
Related: 15 Easy Designs for a DIY Desk
Happy Media
This peppy console table comes together with matching IKEA Sektion cabinets, IKEA Veddinge cabinet doors, wood boards, and IKEA Hilver furniture legs. Wood and sleek white are artfully married in this stylishly Scandinavian design that's just the right size for stashing home electronics.
Related: The Best 9 Storage Spots You Aren't Already Using
Smooth Sailing
Perfect for maritime enthusiasts, this nautical-themed dresser brings beachy style to the front porch. To re-create the piece, update an IKEA three-drawer chest with white spray paint, then attach four casters to the base. Finally, detach the original drawer knobs and replace them with lengths of jute rope, tying the pieces of rope into large loops to make opening the chest both fun and easy.
Related: 9 Simple Porch Ideas to Steal from Real Homes
Novel Idea
Using leftover wrapping paper, you can transform a basic IKEA bookcase into an eye-popping book nook. Simply tape a large swath of paper to the back board of an unassembled shelf. Once the paper has been fixed to the board, assemble the shelf and decorate with complementary accents.
Related: 8 Clever Ways to Reuse Wrapping Paper
Thrifty Throwback
This midcentury-modern-inspired cabinet boasts age-old appeal that you can re-create in a jiffy with little more than an IKEA kitchen cabinet. When framed by four glossy white panels and elevated on vintage table legs, the cabinet becomes a versatile piece that suits any room or awkward corner.
Related: 11 “Zero Dollar” Ways to Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets
Spiced-Up Storage
Spice up bland walls—and declutter the kitchen—with this wall-mounted spice rack. Starting with an IKEA Bekvam shelf, spray-paint the wood black and secure hardware cloth behind the front panel of the rack. Attach a wood-burned label in between the bar and the base to announce your new IKEA hack's function with style.
Related: 21 Brilliant Hacks for an Organized Kitchen
Illuminating Idea
Low on light and short on lamps? Add a light source above a desk, side table, or bed by threading an IKEA lamp kit through a hole drilled in a wooden IKEA serving bowl. Hang the pendant light according to the kit instructions to shine a light on any dark corner of your home.
Related: 8 Common Lighting Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes
On the Edge
Beat the winter blahs in a guest room or bedroom by sewing homemade pom-poms and tassels in an alternating pattern around the edge of a basic blanket. Make each pom-pom by wrapping white yarn around a C-shaped cardboard cutout, and form the tassels by circling leftover yarn around your palm and knotting the top to create a playful flourish for your linens.
Desktop Dwelling
You don't even have to lift a hammer to reconstruct this chic computer desk for your bedroom or office. Using just industrial-strength Velcro, you can assemble two IKEA Hilver table legs, a Linnmon tabletop, and a Micke drawer unit into a good-looking and hardworking surface for desktops, laptops, and everyday paperwork, all in the span of a few hours.
Related: Under $50: 10 Must-Haves for an Organized Desk
Late-Night Nostalgia
Pair a flat-screen with this timeless TV stand for nonstop elegance and entertainment. Starting with a basic IKEA TV stand with drawers, spray paint the legs in gold paint. Then, secure a brass starburst plate to the center of each drawer face, topping each plate with a brass knob to marry modern beauty with midcentury flair.
Related: 10 Easy Ways to Build Your Own TV Stand
Top Brass
When a six-drawer IKEA chest is refinished with brass hardware and matching decorative flourishes, the result is a showroom-quality dresser you can proudly call your own. Rather than distracting from the design, the sleek silhouette of the bar pulls and the careful alignment of the corner braces on each drawer face accentuate the simple elegance of the pure white dresser.
Related: 11 Totally Unexpected Uses for IKEA Furniture
Laid-Back in Leather
Sit in the lap of luxury without breaking the bank by upcycling an IKEA wooden bench into this leather-accented seat. The eye-catching piece, particularly welcoming in an entryway or mudroom, is created by covering the top of the bench with a woven pattern of long and short strips of leather.
Related: See How 8 DIYers Each Transformed 1 IKEA Classic
Guiding Light
Pique the interest of geography buffs in your house with this illuminating idea for a decoupaged lamp. By gluing a world map to the inside of an IKEA lampshade before assembling it, you can make a world-class light source for hardworking spaces like the office, studio, or craft room.
Related: The 22 Weirdest Town Names Ever Put on the Map
Stand Corrected
Your next vintage furniture find for the bedroom may come not from a flea market, but from IKEA. Finished with onyx paint and bun feet, this three-drawer nightstand takes on a new life of old-world glamour. Narrow slats of wood highlight the perimeter of each drawer front, and glass handles accented with brass bands elevate this artful bedside companion.
Bar with a Twist
Repurposed from an IKEA dresser, this showpiece bar "cart" makes for an entertaining addition to the dining room or kitchen. Re-create this functional piece by adding a wood base to the bottom of the dresser, then attaching wooden furniture legs to metal hardware plates and securing them to the base. Coat the bare wood with white chalk paint, attach modern metallic drawer pulls, and affix decorative fretwork panels, spray-painted gold for a regal finish.
Related: Ugly Appliance? 7 Easy Makeovers That Totally Transform
Tiers of Joy
Whether you fill it with loose jewelry or tantalizing treats, this tiered tray is sure to be a conversation starter in any room. With a few spare nuts and bolts, you can join two ceramic IKEA plates with an oak dowel to form a storage-smart accent that fits in beautifully anywhere—whether it be the bathroom counter, bedroom dresser, or kitchen island.
Related: 7 Ingenious IKEA Hacks for Your Backyard
Activity in Motion
While the kids are busy playing, you can pull off this effortless IKEA hack that will transform the activity room into an organizational oasis. Turn over an IKEA Trofast storage frame so that the opening faces the ceiling. Then, using six screws, secure an IKEA Linnmon tabletop to the frame. Keep the tabletop clear for a train track, and fill the interior with bargain bins to stash unruly building blocks and accessories in between play times.
Related: Control Kids' Clutter with 7 Creative DIYs
Stony Expression
Emulate the modern look and feel of marble at a fraction of the cost by adhering marble contact paper to your favorite piece of furniture. Here, marble contact paper is applied to the top of a primed and painted IKEA Malm dresser to create a low-cost look-alike of the luxe stone.
Related: 20 Best Ways to Spend $20 on Your Home
Don't Miss!
If you have the money to hire a handyman for every household woe, go ahead. But if you want to hang on to your cash and exercise some self-sufficiency, check out these clever products that solve a million and one little problems around the house. Go now!
