IKEA Shelving, Modified
July 17, 2012
Progress continues on the playroom to study transformation – I’m trying to get it all done before the kids go back to school in late August. One of the major changes I wanted to make was to have a wall of shelving that would contain books, art supplies, games, and a modern TV for the kids to view videos on occasion.
You may recall the laminate entertainment center that used to sit in the space – a fabulous piece but always a little bulky. It jutted out into the room, but that was necessary to hold my old college television and my kids would watch their VHS movies on it. We decided to donate that piece of furniture to the Alma Project family room so I went in search of some new shelving for this space.
I wanted to something streamlined, modern, narrow, but wide too and I most definitely did not want to spend a fortune. Enter the IKEA VITTSJÖ shelving unit, $70 bucks each! It comes in black metal with glass shelves, but I wanted to transform it to suit our home, so I painted it white and substituted dark wood shelves for glass – here it is.
The unit when assembled looks like this.
But I thought white with wood shelving would be better fit for our home. These transformed inexpensive shelves are now perfect for this space !
There is just enough room for educational books, artwork, and some greenery.
The magazine file folders are get this – painted! Seriously. It’s cause I’m cheap resourceful like that. I already had the set of four orange canvas ones from a few years ago (I think I found them at The Container Store?) so I painted them with a craft paint – reinvented for pennies!
That cute green oversized clothespin is adorable, I know! I found it at Pottery Barn Kids five years ago, sadly it’s no longer available but I say bring it back in all kinds of colors because it’s not just a decorative accent, it can hang on the wall and hold art, love that.
Hedgehog, otherwise known as Mr. Prickles, is running joke in our home. Long story short, it’s the one forest animal our daughter stumped us on last year in a 30 minute game of “Guess The Animal” making us “furious!” and every time the kids want to make us mad they say “Hedgehog” and then get tickled to death. Mr. Prickles has a place of honor in our home – acrylic watercolor purchased from Dimdi on Etsy.
This is a good time to talk about those shelves – they are made of birch plywood. I didn’t like the idea of glass shelves in this space and I’m smitten with the white + dark wood combo (see these end tables and my personal Pinterest board dedicated to the subject) so I decided to replace them with stained wood shelves.
I headed to my local Lowes because it has a pretty good selection of wood. I could have cut up a piece of regular ol’ ½” plywood but I opted instead for the prettier birch. I have to tell you I stood there debating over cutting up the $30 piece of of inexpensive plywood and spending $75 for nicer birch (4’ x 4’ sheets) for half an hour and ended up choosing the latter because I liked the grain so much better.
Lowes offers free cuts for their wood so I had their guy cut my ten shelves to the size I needed. I also grabbed three cans of Rust-Oleum spray paint in semi-gloss to turn the shelves from dark to light.
I used my leftover stain from the X base table – two coats – then added one coat of Minwax Polyurethane in ‘Satin’.
Plywood has unattractive edges, so the best way to disguise them is to cover them with iron on edging, use wood putty, or take the easy route and paint the edges with some dark brown paint – a solution I’m satisfied with in this circumstance since the edges aren’t that visible anyway because they mostly sit inside the shelving unit.
Both shelving units are secured to the wall with these earthquake straps- the same ones we had on the old entertainment center.
The final result from staining the birch plywood is a nice contrast between dark shelves and the white painted frame – it plays well with the adjacent dark wood table and white window seat.
I love how integrated the smaller flat screen TV is…
… five bazillion points if you can identify this movie.
I really love how I can display a rotating art gallery on top. Picasso said it best, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” The butterfly art is from IKEA but the rest are *masterpieces* created by the children.
And that’s the story on how a plain ol’ IKEA shelf became the perfect fit in our house!
The whole project including two shelving units, new wood shelves, and spray paint cost me $225 because I spent the extra $$ on the nicer plywood, but I’m crazy loving this new sleek modern wall of shelving in our home!
Want more ideas for personalizing the Vittsjo pieces?
Take a peek at this follow up post (think color, rustic, and glam!)
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Tags: ikea hack, vittsjo shelving
i LOVE this hack and just bought all the “ingredients” to put this together except I cannot find the white spray paint (Rustoleum one) in semi gloss, here in Canada i just seem to find the “Gloss” or “Flat” which would you suggest if any or another brand?
Thanks!
Hi CB, you can go with any white spray paint, but make sure it’s one that works on metal, otherwise you’ll have to prime first!
Kate
Hi!
My boyfriend and I plan to give this a shot at our new apartment. We would be using the same size Unit that you used in the tutorial. After reading the comments I have some nervousness about shelf sagging under book weight. You mentioned that your unit has a center support for each shelf. I just wanted to double check that they came with that bc when I look at the picture on the ikea site the center supoorts dont appear to be there…its possible they photo shopped them out to make the glass shelving look nicer but I just thought I’d ask before I dove into this project.
Thanks so much!
Hi Allie, they are definitely there on the larger pieces, but not the skinnier ones. There is a 3/4″ metal bracket that sticks out underneath the Vittsjo shelf to support it on those larger units I used.
Kate
Additionally, what size did you get the ply wood cut?
Thanks so much!
Cheers,
T
Hello Thomas, I used the existing shelf and took it to Lowes where they used it as a template to cut the plywood to fit exactly.
Kate
The shelves look amazing! What a great “hack.” How has the white paint held up?
Yes Korrie the paint still looks great!
Kate
Spaceballs.
how is the quality of this IKEA line? I love your ideas!
So far, it’s really great Paige, shockingly good for mass produced – IKEA does it again!
Kate
Hi! I plan to spray paint mine too soon. My question is, using that kind of spray paint, did you just spray it on the metal? And how many layers did you do? :)
Love it! Where did you get the rug from by the way?
Thanks!
Hi Julie, 2 layers of paint, and I used RustOleum directly on the metal, no priming.
Kate
Alright thanks! I actually decided to prime mine just to be sure. Using the compatible rust-oleum primer spray.
day 1: prime
day 2: 1st layer of paint
I noticed on one area (one bar actually) there is some micro cracking. SHould I sand just that area, then prime and paint again? I was hoping since it’s just micro cracking, maybe I can just paint over it :p
This looks great and simple to do! I do want to add that I have seen the over-sized clothes pin at AC Moore (it’s in the unpainted wood section).
Great Job on your hack!
you can find those giant clothespins now at Michaels Arts and Crafts Stores—sometimes they are a seasonal item so call ahead to be sure but they’re huge, colorful, awesome (and paint well if needed!)
This idea is so awesome! I have been looking for a new shelving unit and this seems like the perfect solution. I looked up the unit on Ikea’s website for size dimensions but they don’t give a dimension for the shelves…just the entire unit itself. What are the measurements (LxWxH) of the “cubbies”? Want to be sure before I make the drive to Ikea and purchase. Thanks!
Hi Nicole, IKEA does lists their dimensions, here they are (for the shelves we used)
Width: 39 3/8 ”
Depth: 14 1/8 ”
Height: 68 7/8 “
one of the opening scenes from Star Wars. The original Star Wars
Awesome Lisa, you got it! Lots of folks thought it was Spaceballs! :)
LOVE this look! I have been attempting to track down your area rug on the web–can you tell me where you bought it??
Thanks!
Hello Lolo, here’s the link to the rug:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Green-and-Ivory-Outdoor-Area-Rug-710-x-10/6233344/product.html
Kate
Michaels’s craft stores have giant clothes pins like that right now for I think only $3 a piece