Upgraded Ikea Billy Bookcase

Shevy.gale
by Shevy.gale
7 Materials
$800
3 Days
Medium

We needed some living room storage and style. Inspired by some posts I saw on Hometalk, I had an idea of what I wanted to do using IKEA bookcases.

We started out with 5 simple IKEA Billy bookcases

We wanted to create some storage space that wouldn't be on display, so we also bought IKEA cabinet doors from kitchen department and attached them on the bottom of some of the bookcases.

All assembled, it looks so nice and clean.

I bought pieces of wooden trimming to cover all of the seams between the bookcases.

Then my husband cut it to the right size

I painted them with 2 layers of white paint so that they were really covered.

I bought slats of wood that were cut the same width as the trimming, my husband then screwed the slats together in between the bookcases, and we glued the trimming onto the slats.

And here it is all put together, but, we are not quite finished yet...

I wanted to add lighting so it would be a nice display closet, so my husband drilled a round whole in the top of the closet cabinets.

Here's where we installed a spot light.

We then finished it up with trimming on the top and bottom and some led lighting on top.


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  • Diane Hernandez Romero Diane Hernandez Romero on Jun 21, 2020

    Hello, what IKEA kitchen doors did you use and what are the measurements? I’d love doors for my Billy bookcase but the ones sold for it are too tall for what I need. Thanks.

  • Deb Deb on Dec 03, 2020

    Why did you leave spaces between the bookcases other than joining them flush?

  • Jaye Jaye on Dec 03, 2020

    Why? A key resource that you left off your list is your husband! Very professional look. You two should go into business just making these bookcases /storage units. Thank you for the ideas.

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