Easy IKEA Hack: Wood Wrapped Kallax Cube Shelf

Hello! It’s me, Corinna from A Designer At Home. As always, it’s a joy to be here today to share an easy Do-It-Yourself project. I’m not a furniture builder, but I still have fun customizing pieces to be more than “blah,” like my DIY stool I shared here last time. This time we’ll be cranking things up a bit by using a basic 8 cube organizer unit to create rustic and retro inspired toy storage (or storage for whatever, if you’re not swimming in toys like me!). A couple pieces of wood, basic knowledge of a drill and a bit of muscle if all you’ll need to get one created for yourself.

A lot of us have small rooms and those rooms have to be stretched really thin with multiple purposes. A fantastic solution for that is furniture that can pack a lot of storage, in a small space, that still fits the decor of the space around it. Cube organizers are perfect for this, the only thing they lack is appearance. There are lots of furniture legs available nowadays, everything from mid century style tapered legs to bun feet to contemporary square feet. Grab a stain or paint you like, a style leg that fits your decor and you’re set to customize this tutorial for your specific space.

How To Make A Rustic Retro Cube Organizer

 If you can’t see the video, check it out on our YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe, pretty please!

Supplies:

• Cube Organizer Unit
• 4 Furniture Legs
• 4 Furniture Leg Plates
• Enough wood to wrap around the organizer (varies by size)
• 20 1 1/4 inch screws
• Drill
• Construction Adhesive
• Stain & Rag

The first thing you’ll want to ensure is that your organizer is tightly put together. No loose screws, it’ll only make the whole process more difficult and your results may not be so great. Then, measure the top (should be same as bottom) distance. Also measure the sides, adding an extra 3/4 inch, or 1 inch (whatever width wood you decide to use- mine is 3/4)  times 2 (for the top and bottom boards).

Use a carpenter’s square to align the plates for the furniture legs and mark the holes with a pen/pencil/marker. Drill the screws into place, securing the plates. If you’re using angled plates, it can get confusing going back and forth. So it may be helpful to test the plates before actually drilling them into place.

Flip the board over and squeeze a bead of construction adhesive along the ends. Then place the organizer atop the wood and secure with clamps.

Repeat the adhesive and clamps with the top piece. While it dries, screw the organizer to the wood with 1 1/4 inch screws. Screw from the inside of the organizer, into the wood, near the corners. Reinforce the top and bottom board with screws in the center.

Once the top and bottom is secure, spread a bead of construction adhesive along the top and bottom edges of a side board, lift the organizer to rest atop it and screw into place. Once secured, repeat with the remaining side.

Using an old rag (or in my case, a sock) spread the stain over the wood, going in the direction of the grain. I love this step. It really brings out the warmth and it helps match the piece to my other furniture.

Right before staining the piece, I filled in the small gap between the top and side boards with wood filler. I’m not 100% with the results. I mostly just wanted to keep playdough and other kid crust out of the crack and make it a bit more seamless. I figured I’d share that just in case you were wondering, but it may not have been the best solution.

When the stain dried, I dragged it into the living room, filled the cubbies with wicker baskets and filled the baskets up with toys. I had a lot of fun, surprisingly, organizing all of his toys into different categories. My son is a die hard fan of garbage trucks, so I kept 2 of them on top and the rest are in a giant wicker trunk.

 

 

 

And, if you really want to jazz things up, you can paint a fun geometric design onto the backing. I chose to split the squares in half diagonally and paint it a bright aqua color. This way, when the top baskets are removed, it’s still pretty.

Thank you for letting me share with you today. I hope you take this idea and have fun creating, or embellishing, a basic piece to be your own. You should come by my blog for more ideas for decorating, creating and enjoying home. It’s what I love so you can find me at my blog, A Designer At Home pretty often! Here are a couple posts I’ve picked out to share with you-

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Cube shelves aren’t boring anymore!

IKEA cubbies to Pottery Barn console

Easy play kitchen from a set of cheap cube shelves

plus even more ways to make basic IKEA look amazing: