3 Clever IKEA Storage Hacks You Have to See to Believe

Every one of us has had a piece of IKEA furniture at some point, right? It’s the starter furniture of all starter furniture, and even sometimes (as evidenced by manifold designers highly recommending its couches), finisher furniture. The best part about IKEA is that the designs are notoriously simple—clean lines, Scandinavian sensibility, and pared back color schemes—which leaves ample room for personalization.

Drew Scott, of the wildly popular design and DIY Youtube channel, Lone Fox, is especially known for his innovative and unique takes on IKEA furniture and decor, transforming them (with a bit of patience and know-how) into totally custom, sophisticated pieces that look plucked from a much higher-end retailer.

Below, we’ve picked a (small!) sampling of our favorite IKEA hacks from Drew, that both elevate the space they’re in and provide practical storage. Read on for how he accomplished them.

Cane webbing has been trending for some time now, but it’s one of those materials (like solid wood) that doesn’t seem to go out of style. One of the most sought-after—and pricey—iterations of this furniture is surely a cabinet with cane-front doors, and while searching for the perfect one, Drew decided the easiest and most cost-effective solution would just be to make it with a BILLY bookcase and a roll of cane.

1. For this project, Drew started with the Birch Veneer BILLY/OXBERG Bookcase, which already has a light, natural wood finish.
2. He measured and cut the pieces of radio weave cane to fit each of the door window panels.
3. Then, he secured them with Gorilla Hot Glue all around the edges directly onto the glass panels, and cut and glued pieces of spline to cover the raw edges.

Going through his stash of DIY supplies, Drew rediscovered a roll of embossed, and in his words, “almost Parisian-style wallpaper,” and was inspired to add it to a piece of furniture for some gorgeous detail. The texture, sage green paint, and antiqued brass pulls certainly do make this dresser look plucked right from a cool French girl’s apartment.

1. This one starts with the TARVA dresser, a raw pine dresser with simple square legs.
2. Prior to building the base of the dresser, Drew separated out the drawer fronts to work with, and sanded the front side of each of them to ensure strong adhesion to the wallpaper.
3. Then, following along with the pattern of the paper, he used Mod Podge and a paintbrush to secure the pieces of wallpaper to each of the drawer fronts, and weighed them down with heavy books while drying to prevent edges from peeling up.
4. Once the mod podge was dry, Drew carefully trimmed the edges of the drawer fronts with a craft knife and sanded the edges smooth in a downward motion to remove any excess paper.
5. The paint color Drew used was Whitewater Bay by Behr in a flat finish, which he applied to the entire dresser and drawer fronts with a small fabric roller.
6. To install the drawer pulls, he then measured where he wanted each to go on the drawer fronts, drilled holes, and tightened them down with their hardware.

This adorable bar setup was dreamt up by Drew as a Father’s Day gift for his dad, who’d been coveting a similar bar setup for some time. Drew played up a more masculine color palette with navy blue and warm stained wood, and elevated the otherwise plain cabinet with added legs and brass pulls.

1. Drew started with the IVAR cabinet—a simple, raw pine cabinet with some shelving on the inside.
2. Then, he added tapered, mid century-style legs with angled leg mounting plates by first screwing the plates onto each corner, then attaching each leg.
3. To make the pine to be a touch darker and warmer, he stained the top two thirds of the cabinet with Varathane Early American, a favorite stain of his that’s great for mid century style furniture.
4. After the stain was dry, Drew added a piece of painter’s tape around the bottom third to prep for paint.
5. He then painted the bottom third and the legs in Benjamin Moore “Hale Navy”.
6. Finally, to add a last bit of sophisticated detail, Drew drilled holes in the door fronts and added two brass pulls to open and close the cabinet.

Would you try your hand at any of these IKEA hacks? Let us know down below!

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