Upcycling Ikea Shelves

by WalScrap in Workshop > Organizing

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Upcycling Ikea Shelves

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 The aim of this project was to make space in a room and get stuff organized. I tried to buy as less new things as possible, not that I am cheap. I like to find ideas that do not require too much money, and still make something that is functional (at least for me) and nice-looking (at least for my girlfriend) ;-) 

Where to Start ?

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 You can achieve the same with any sizes of Ikea shelves, even of different depths. The only important thing is to measure carefully your heights and widths and make sure it really can be piled and fit between the ground and the ceiling...
The arrangement I drawn on paper was the following, and the shelves I had are shot in next picture

Building Up

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To my point of view, it was better to lay everything down. 
Then, If you are lucky, all of your shelves have the same depth.
Unfortunately, it was not the case for me.  I had to clamp two shelves together, maintaining the first to the second to account for depth difference. I needed 1 1/2 screws.
 
Don't be shy with screws. Your assembly must be strong.
Important note here. When I screw the two planks on the very sides, I left approx 1 inch between the front of the shelves and the front of the side plank. This is space left for potential door that could be added in the future...

Final Thoughts

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 Here is the hardly final project with a transparent black curtain. It still needs some ''help'' at the upper sides (have a look at note in previous step).

This is to show the actual size of this monster... 253cm by 171cm. So, make sure your arrangement will fit in your home, and not only once in place. You have to account for lifting the beast from the ground to the wall. You wish to avoid surprises.

Original design aimed at coloring the side planks in black. But it matches pretty well with the table I also made. And there had been a veto ;-)


Finish Step

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Finally, I took some time to put a frame to hide the curtain mount as well as the top of the shelves.

I used wood dovels to attach the three parts of wood together.

The thing that I realized afterwards was that the wood I used for the upper part was slightly thicker than the plank on the side. One can actually like it, I think it is not so bad.

What do you think guys ?