IKEA Hack Built-In Cabinets for Family Room TV & Books

This is our second IKEA Hack.  We had previously built a shelf/closet system for our living room out of PAX and BESTÅ units. Pictured below.

We wanted to do something similar built-in cabinets for our family room which would also hold the TV and have some lower cabinets for storage out of sight. This is the end result.

IKEA item used:

BESTÅ units and doors

DIY family room built-in cabinets with IKEA BESTÅ

We decided to use all BESTÅ units and to get the “cabinet” look (deeper than the upper shelves).

What we did was to build an integrated wall of shelves and cabinets using only BESTÅ shelves (fits into an 8 foot wide by 9 foot tall space). It has the look of substantial base cabinets and counter with shallower bookshelves on top.

The lower “cabinet” is just a set of lower BESTÅ shelf unit with doors that is pushed out further from the wall (~7 inches). They are installed on a riser so that the baseboards fit underneath the doors. The lower cabinet is topped with a countertop made of two 1x12s attached together.

In summary, what we did was:

1) We moved the lower BESTÅ units out about 7 inches away from the wall.

2) Then, installed a 22.5″ deep wood countertop on top of the lower shelves also supported by a wall cleat.

3) We also added doors to the lower shelves.

4) And added a side panel to hide the 7″ gap.

Making the built-ins for books and the TV

On top we used two tall shelves on the sides and suspended another shelf between them, to create a space for the TV (since the BESTÅ shelves do not have space for a moderately sized TV).

Instead of building the entire tall shelves and placing them on top of the countertop, we removed the shelf base and attached the shelf sides directly to the countertop.  We used the cam lock screws by screwing them directly into the countertop to hold the shelf sides.

To finish it, we also added crown molding at the top and a curtain to cover the TV when it is not in use.

We are very happy with how the hack turned out. Total cost was around $700 and the project took around 15 hours.

~ by Shirley and Chris