Ikea Hack: Industrial Kids Shelf (With Another Secret Purpose)

by Medina at Grillo Designs

Its all about industrial right now- at least it is for me anyway. I'm on a mission to industrialize my whole house starting with my sons bedroom (You can search all my industrial projects on my blog grillo-designs to see them all!). So do you see this shelf below? It used to be a standard white IKEA BILLY BOOKCASE, but now of course it looks completely different

ikea hack industrial kids shelf with another secret purpose , painted furniture, shelving ideas

To start this project off I added a piece of MDF wood to the bottom shelf with hinges and used liquid nails to hold it in place. This was the beginning stages of that SECRET OTHER PURPOSE I mentioned in the title - head over to my blog at link below if you want to see why I added in this extra shelf

Next to paint and prep! IKEA furniture can be tricky to paint sometimes because of its laminate effect coating. I have a great STEP BY STEP tutorial on HOW TO PAINT IKEA FURNITURE HERE if you just have no idea where to start.

I added on these notice board pins (thumb tacks) to the outside of the shelf to give it that cool industrial rivets vibe. I then paint over these notice board pins as though they were a part of the actual piece of furniture.

Once everything was dry I used a metallic effect rub on wax... I seriously love this stuff and its super easy to apply! I'm dropping a link to where you can purchase this wax at next to nothing (affiliate): Silver Rubb and buff metallic wax. You can see the effect of the wax in the picture below. I wiped it on very slightly!

I also added a wire mesh to the back of the shelf with a staple gun

This was such a fun project to do - but definitely took some time to complete to get it looking perfect. There is so much more detail and fun features we added to this shelf, so please head over to the blog (AT DIRECT LINK BELOW) to view this tutorial in further detail. You'll also get to see why I created that hinged door at the bottom of the shelf too ;)

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2 questions

Debbie on Jul 22, 2016
Where did you buy the wire mesh?

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Paul G. on Aug 17, 2016
Is that gray liner an insert or just paint?

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3 of 11 comments

Lisa House on Aug 15, 2016
Great modifications! I may use similar idea on cubes to make storage for towels in my bathroom! Thx for sharing!

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Kate on Sep 19, 2016
Ooh, we have some leftover wire mesh. I never thought of using that to stop things falling down the back of the bookcases. What a great idea!

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- Medina at Grillo Designs on Sep 19, 2016
  Thank you :)
  
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