A Folding Kitchen Island That’s Both Stylish and Surprisingly Practical

Ever lived with a kitchen so small you had to choose between opening the fridge or the dishwasher?

I did—and an island was completely off the table.

My solution back then was a small rolling cart, which worked in a pinch but never really brought the style or flexibility I craved.

That’s why this clever folding kitchen island hack stopped me in my tracks. It’s compact, chic, and surprisingly versatile. It’s everything I wished I had in my first tiny kitchen.

Rochelle Gracey (TheSorryGirls) shows how she transforms a basic BILLY bookcase into a versatile folding bar table. Whether you need a space-saving kitchen island, a cute coffee bar, or a place to whip up cocktails in a pinch, this hack has you covered.

What You’ll Need

• 1 IKEA BILLY Bookcase (15 ¾” x 11” x 41 ¾”)
• 2 ¼” x 30 mm connector bolts
• 2 Threaded inserts to match bolts
• 2 Folding brackets
• 1 HASSLARP door (15” x 40”) (Rochelle found one in IKEA’s as-is section!)
• 1 OXBERG door (15 ½” x 38 ¼”)
• Painter’s tape
• ½”-thick piece of plywood
• Scrap timber
• Magnets
• Rotary bit to match HASSLARP door hinge-holes
• Light sandpaper
• Wooden dowels
• Small saw
• Table saw or circular saw
• ⅜” Forstner bit
• ¼” drill bit
• Clamps and spacers
• Wood-grain contact paper
• Basics — drill, tape measure, pencil, screw gun

From BILLY Bookcase to Functional Foldaway Kitchen Counter

1. Assemble the BILLY

First, put together the bookcase according to IKEA instructions. For her hack, Rochelle chose the brown walnut finish.

2. Make the Door Front

Originally, Rochelle was going to use a BILLY shelf to have the perfect-sized door front. However, she simply couldn’t pass up the HASSLARP door with its swanky chevron pattern.

The only thing is, the door is too big. You’ll need to trim from all four sides if you want to maintain a balanced pattern.

Trim off the factory edging to use later to hide the raw edges. Measure and apply painter’s tape to where you’re going to cut to minimize chipping. 

Note: Since Rochelle trimmed off the bottom, the cut went through the pre-drilled hinge holes, losing the straight edge. She solved this problem by cutting wooden discs out of a ½” thick piece of plywood and gluing them into the holes.

3. Reapply Edging

Smooth the raw edges a bit with light sanding and reattach the edging with wood glue. Use painter’s tape to hold the edging in place while it dries.

4. Fill Holes

Use appropriately-sized dowels and wood glue to plug the holes on the back of the HASSLARP door. Once they dry, saw the excess and sand lightly. Cover the raw wood with wood-grain contact paper.

5. Attach the Door Front

Rochelle used a lot of careful measuring and a prototype to test out where to place the pivot point for the front panel. She recommends doing the same because you may only get one shot to screw into the sides of the BILLY without ruining the finish.

She also used clamps and spacers to hold the panel in its hanging position while she marked the holes. Use the ⅜” Forstner bit (it makes flat-bottomed holes) to make holes in the side of the panel. Insert the threaded inserts.

Next, use the ¼” bit to drill the holes in the sides of the bookcase. This makes the hole a little bigger to give the bolts space to go through and pivot.

6. Add the Leg

Rochelle used the OXBERG door as the leg for the tabletop because she liked the detailed edges, and it matched the BILLY perfectly. But she basically had to take apart the entire door and put it back together to fit.

Attach the OXBERG door to the tabletop using the folding brackets. Make a spacer out of timber or spare wood to fill the gap on the hingeless side of the tabletop and leg.

Rochelle uses magnets to keep the panels together. A slim piece of wood with a gentle magnet at the bottom of the shelf acts as a catch when the piece is closed.

7. Hack the Shelves

Trim down the shelves to fit inside the closed unit. Drill new holes for the front shelf pins. Add long handles to the fronts of the shelves to act as tip guards. This way, you won’t have to worry about things inching forward and falling over time as you open and close the table.

Watch Rochelle hack an IKEA BILLY bookcase into a folding kitchen island.

A Folding Kitchen Island and So Much More!

Rochelle suggests using this hack as a coffee bar, a regular bar, or simply to add extra prep space in the kitchen when needed. It could also be a breakfast bar or offer additional table seating if you’re having guests over for dinner or brunch.

But this hack also adapts well to rooms other than the kitchen. It could be a slim, space-saving workstation in a craft room or a pop-up work bench, or it could turn into a standing desk in a home office.

You could also use it in a playroom to become an art station, tucking away paints, crayons, and other supplies in the hidden shelves.

Many of the comments on Rochelle’s hack praise the project, even going as far as to say IKEA should add it to their BILLY collection.

The closest thing they have right now is the BILLY bookcase with a folding table, so this is certainly something different.

How would you use this hack in your home? Or maybe you’ve already hacked an IKEA piece into something amazing? Share your hack for a chance to get featured on the site.

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NEXT: More IKEA Kitchen Island Hacks