3 fabulous ways to use TRONES, not as a shoe cabinet

IKEA TRONES shoe cabinet used in unusual ways for the bathroom and hallway.

#1 TRONES for display and electronics

Here is my hack.

I commissioned the joinery as part of a hallway renovation but the design was mine. 

trones display and router cabinet
IKEA item used:
trones shoe boxes

TRONES shoe/ storage cabinet | IKEA.com


Related: 8 rooms that love a wall mounted shoe cabinet


I wanted shoe storage, but also storage for the dog stuff. In addition, I had a lot of electronics to hide such as a router and some smart home devices. 

trones display and router cabinet

I used Pozi pan head A4 self tapping screws to join TRONES units horizontally.

And to stop screws pulling through the soft plastic of the rear of the TRONES unit, I used A2 stainless steel cup washers. 

trones display and router cabinet

Lastly, I removed the back of the pull out section of the TRONES cabinet so it wouldn’t foul the router and mounted extension strips inside it. 

~ by Andrew

#2 TRONES in the bathroom as a laundry cabinet

I turned it into a laundry sorter for our small bathroom.

Basically you would not need any modifications. But I wanted it to look cool so I applied a wooden top and some letters.

What you need for the laundry sorter:

  • 2 x 2-pack TRONES shoe cabinet
  • Oak wood (16cm x 103cm)
  • Wood stain
  • Sandpaper
  • Putty to fill the holes on the sides
  • Powerstrips adhesive (Similar to 3M Command strips)
  • Letters for delicates, hot & cold wash, colors etc.

1. Mount the TRONES shoe cabinets to the wall and screw both together. Fill holes on the outer sides.

trones in bathroom

2. Sand and stain the wood to be placed on top of the TRONES.

trones as laundry

3. Then, when dry, glue the wood to the top of the TRONES. (I used Powerstrips.)

4. The last step is to apply letters to the surface of the shoe cabinet. This step is optional but it does help people get their laundry in the right place. I labelled the four boxes according to delicates, hot & cold wash, colors, etc.

trones laundry cabinet

~ by Julie Christiani, Hamburg

#3 Use it in the hallway as a key cabinet

What you need for the key cabinet:

For the key cabinet, repeat the above steps 1 – 3.

trones shoe cabinet in hallway

Final step is to glue hooks into the drawer. For the fun of it, we also made labels and pasted them on top of the hooks.

trones key cabinet

Keeps everything organized. And out of sight, when closed.

While you’re here, take a look at my other hack – an IKEA KALLAX kitchen corner seating.

ikea kallax kitchen corner seating

What we needed was a flexible corner seating for the kitchen. Challenge: the radiator was not to be covered completely. Read more.

~ by Julie Christiani, Hamburg