My Ikea hack

So here I am again posting another fun thing from our bedroom. This is my first Ikea hack, and I am excited to share it. When we were first designing our room, we wanted some book shelves to go on either side of our fireplace.

I found these at Ikea. They were just standard bookshelves stained a cream color. I knew I needed to paint them since the white clashed so bad with the white in my room.  So we went to work painting them....the first time. A beautiful shade of deep gray.

Notice, the gray is only on the insides.  We did not use any primer or liquid sand the first time, and after we painted the paint just peeled off the surface.  So we had to scrape everything off and start over. Not fun at all! For the second time around we decided to use zinsser primer...which I knew about....which I have used before...which I was stupid not to use the first time. Do not forget this step! It worked great.


When we took the bookcases into the room and put them next to the fireplace we decided that they didn't work there. We decided to screw them together like a hutch and place a piece of molding down the middle.  I took off the original backs and installed some V board to give the inside a more custom look.  I decided that since they were together and would be such a large piece in the room I wanted to paint them white and leave the inside gray.

The zinsser worked, the paint stuck the second time just fine, and I loved the way they looked in the room.

My husband added some lights the top inside, some glass shelves so the lights would shine through, and some crown molding on the top.  We also found some fun knobs to go on the drawers.  I am not going to lie, this was a lot of work, but way worth it.  I love how it makes the room feel comfortable. I love to read, and having my books in my room makes me smile every time I look at it. Pin It