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Half the thrill of shopping at IKEA is walking around the warehouse and perusing the seemingly infinite showrooms. The other half is hacking whatever it is you end up purchasing, be it with a lick of paint or an assortment of power tools. If you haven’t yet mastered the art of these Internet-famous tricks but 2024 is feeling like your year to DIY, we’re delivering all the motivation you need from serial IKEA hackers who have been there, done that. Ahead, we rounded up some of our favorite furniture and decor transformations we saw this past year.
#1: A Psychedelic Söderhamn Sofa
Robin Heller wasn’t ready to get rid of the Söderhamn sofa she’s owned for nearly a decade, but it was in dire need of a refresh. “I had this vision of tie-dye,” she recounts. The designer called on a friend who runs a creative studio called Upstate to make a custom cover hand-dyed in swirls of yellow, pink, red, and blue.
#2: A Lack TV Unit With a Fresh Frame
For $45, seasoned DIYer Drew Michael Scott added sculptural trim to this ordinary TV stand. (Psst: The wavy wood he bought from Lowe’s is technically meant for roofing.) After cutting the long slivers to his desired dimensions, he applied a stain by Puritan in a dark pine color and attached them to the table with a brad nailer.
#3: Two Single Godmorgon Vanities, Combined
Two of IKEA’s two-drawer Godmorgon vanities form one extra-long vanity in designer Sarah Sherman Samuel’s guest bathroom. By tapping into her line for Semihandmade, she was able to swap the drawer fronts for soft gray-green ones with a slim profile, before topping the pieces with a thick slab of marble.
#4: An Ivar Cabinet–Turned–Mini Closet
Writer, designer, and mom Judith Achumba-Wöllenstein has a lot of experience hacking IKEA’s Ivar units. When it came to her 2-year-old’s bedroom, she decided to replace the doors with a curtain and cover the whole thing in gingham fabric using Mod Podge, resulting in a miniature closet that fosters his independence in choosing outfits.
#5: A Sektion Banquette
The cabinets, countertops, and banquette in Sarah Matthews’s kitchen are all IKEA products, but you’d never know it—especially the seating nook. The bench is actually Sektion wall cabinets with the same Semihandmade doors that are on the cupboards. Meanwhile, the backing is extra Stuga floorboards, and the cushion is sliced-up foam rollers swathed in scrap Jenny Pennywood fabric.
#6: Arched Pax Closets
After using IKEA’s online Pax planner, Scotland-based renovator Nicole Dryden ordered enough wardrobes to line the wall of her dressing room. From there, she went for a fully built-in look by framing each Pax unit in MDF, filling in the empty spaces between each one and the walls, ceiling, and floor. To top it off, she used a jigsaw to make new arched doors (also crafted from MDF).
#7: A Sculptural Lack Shelf Mantel
Partly inspired by Ferm Living’s Tuck vase and a DIY tutorial of said vase by Lena from @allthepeachesplease, Achumba-Wöllenstein transformed IKEA’s simplest product—the Lack shelf—into an artful fireplace mantel. The trick? Six pounds of air-drying clay.
#8: A Havsta Cabinet With Faux Beadboard
Billy bookcase who? DIYer Valeria Jacobs bought the Havsta cabinets and lined the interior with paintable beadboard wallpaper (now swathed in Oval Room Blue by Farrow & Ball) and dipped the exterior in London Clay.
#9: A Dual-Hued Mydal Bunk Bed Frame
In a shared kids’ room, a little paint can go a long way in making it feel fun for everyone. Shortly after moving into their new home, artist Bethany Brill gave her kids Zara and Billie’s plain wood Mydal bunk bed a second life by coating the raw pine in green and blue paint. “I didn’t want to change up their bed because they had enough changes going on,” explains Brill.
