Scavenger Chic

IKEA Bookshelves go Horizontal

• By Joan
• January 25, 2016
• 9 Comments

When I shared with you the desktop (above) last week, I mentioned that a blizzard was on its way. Well I’m back, and pleased to announce that I survived the blizzard of 2016.

Forecasts called for 18-24 inches of the white stuff and we got about 28″. With enough toilet paper, milk and mini marshmallows we were able to coast thru the blizzard with no problems.  Backs and arms are a little sore from shoveling…but other than that, no problems.

This was in the middle of the storm on Saturday. You can’t really tell how deep the snow was getting except for that lonely little mailbox pole on the left. There were actually very few power outages, way less than predicted, probably because the snow wasn’t very wet.  You notice, it’s not sticking to the trees.  During our last big blizzard, Snowmageddon of 2010, we lost about 15 trees because the snow was so heavy.

This is a picture of the yardstick that we stuck in the snow right outside our kitchen door to see how deep the snow was getting. Can’t see the yardstick? It was finally covered at about 9:00 on Saturday night.  Even though we got about 28 inches in total, the extra inches are from where the snow drifted off the roof.

On Sunday afternoon we were finally able to break through the 4 1/2 foot wall of snow at the foot of our driveway where the snowplows had piled it up.

Enough about snow and back to our project of the day.  All last week I showed you the desk transformation in my youngest son’s room.  First the mismatched metal file cabinets, followed by the desktop.

Since I had taken a large bookcase out of his room, I sort of wanted to put some kind of shelving back.

First step was to take everything off of the old shelf.  All the junk was divided into 3 piles…a pile of keepsakes for the storage room (which I am still organizing, but that is for later in the week), a pile to be donated, and a pile of stuff he would like to have back on the new shelf.  The old large shelf (an IKEA Billy bookcase) was taken down to the storage room where it’s aiding me in my organizing task.

In my son’s closet sat these 2 shelves (above). If you turned them sideways, wouldn’t they be perfect for above the desk?

And in the storage room, where the Billy bookcase went, was an old wooden bookcase, kind of beat up but perfect for a closet.  That bookcase took the place of the above 2 shelves.  A perfect 3 way switcheroo.

These are the shelves that were in the closet. Judging by the screws and the particle board, I’m assuming these are IKEA shelves.  They have no backing and they are only attached by dowels in the middle.

The idea is to take these IKEA shelves and attach them horizontally to the wall.  Right now they needed something to attach to.

1×4  lumber was cut and fitted to the inside of the shelves.  These were attached to the shelves with a nail gun.

Before attaching to the wall find your studs and mark.

You can see, the height of my shelf from the top of the desk was one crate, 3 pieces of shelving, an old medicine cabinet and 3 pieces of pallet wood (or 22 inches if you’d like to be a little more exact). It was easier to hold the shelf up with stuff rather than trying to screw and hold it level at the same time.

In each stud that was previously marked, I screwed two 3 inch screws into each of the 1×4 boards, for a total of 16 screws. It helps to predrill to avoid any splitting wood.

Pallet wood was cut to fit into the openings and nailed with finishing nails to the 1×4’s.

I was going to attach the other shelf above this one, but I changed my mind once it was up on the wall.  I’m really liking the uncluttered look.

Back to the pile of stuff that was earmarked for the new shelves.  No, it didn’t all fit. There were a bunch of favorite books…those got put on another book shelf in the basement.  A few more things went into the keepsake box and a few more things were stored in the closet.

This side of the room is complete! (for now)

Have to show you a couple before and afters. I tried to get the same view point to really show the difference. 

As for the other shelf…it too went horizontal. It makes a great shoe rack in the closet.

Have a great week.

Shared at : Metamorphosis Monday, Inspire me Tuesday, Trash 2 Treasure,

Be Inspired Tuesday, Wow us Wednesdays, Talk of the Town,

DIY Collective, Silver Pennies Sundays,

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Metal File Cabinet Makeover