IKEA Living Room Hacks

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When it comes to furnishing your living room, IKEA is a go-to destination for many. With its affordable prices and stylish designs, IKEA furniture is a popular choice for those looking to create a comfortable and functional living space.

But there's the risk of your living room looking like an IKEA showroom if you use mainly IKEA furniture. With a little creativity and a few DIY skills, you can take your IKEA furniture to the next level and perhaps even get a few people saying, "I can't believe it's IKEA!"

From easy IKEA hacks like adding new legs to your sofa to creating custom built-in storage solutions, there are so many fabulous ways to tweak your IKEA pieces into pieces that are uniquely you. 

In this page, you'll find some of the best IKEA living room hacks to inspire your own DIY projects and help you create a space that's both stylish and functional.

Most Popular Posts on Living Rooms

Take ordinary IKEA furniture and transform them into something extraordinary. From custom built-ins to clever hidden work spaces, these living rooms showcase the creativity and ingenuity of IKEA hackers.

Whether you're looking to add some personality to your space or simply want to make the most of your IKEA furniture, these living room hacks are sure to inspire. So why not take a closer look and see how you can create a space that's stylish and functional?

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Bookshelves Sideboards Room Dividers

Living Room Storage

The wonder of IKEA hacking! Take IKEA furniture and modify them to fit your specific needs and space requirements.

You not only create a storage system that's tailored to your living room and the items you need to store, but also seamlessly match your style and taste.

All our IKEA Living Room Hacks

Customised Ikea Billy

Customised Ikea Billy

Materials: Billy, Paint Description: We didn’t want a plain white shelf in our living room as we were afraid that it appeared to ‘cold’. So the goal was to choose a background colour that underlined the warm colours of our room but still made a modern impression. Strangely, in the…

Another Lack hack: Dual ottomans

Another Lack hack: Dual ottomans

Materials: Lack end table, Capita legs, plywood, foam, spray adhesive, cordless drill/screwdriver, saw, glue Description: We moved into a new apartment and found ourselves with one too many Lack end tables and no ottoman for our new couch. Instead of dumping the old Lack, we decided to buy another and…

The "Sweden meets Italy" decoupage chair collection

The "Sweden meets Italy" decoupage chair collection

Materials: chair, prints of paintings, PVA glue, varnish Description: I decoupaged my favorite Italian artists on to Ikea chairs, and then varnished them. (sorry, I don’t recall the name of this particular chair; I looked online and didn’t find it…could it be no longer in stock? I did these about…

STIKZ Room Divider

STIKZ Room Divider

Materials: 2×4 Expedit, SMYCKA (bundle of sticks) Description: I needed a room divider for my studio apartment; the piece that I created served to set off my “living room” from my “boudoir”. I purchased a black/brown EXPEDIT and the SMYCKA decorative bundle of sticks from IKEA and four pieces of…

Midcentury modern Expedit side table

Midcentury modern Expedit side table

Materials: EXPEDIT Insert with 2 drawers, (2) 2-packs of adjustable BESTA Legs, INREDA storage with 4 compartments, ¾” plywood, edgebanding for plywood; tools> panel saw at your friendly local wood supplier (thanks Owl Hardwood) or saw with high quality plywood cutting blade, biscuit joiner borrowed from your woodworking friend (thanks…

Stainless steel coffee table

Stainless steel coffee table

Materials: Drill with a phillips head attachment, Vika Hyttan table top length 47 1/4 width 23 5/8 price 99.00 (located in the desk section), one pack Grundtal legs. I used 16 1/8 price 25.00 or less depending on height you choose (located in the bathroom cabinet section) Description: Wanted a…

Kitchen table gone couch table

Kitchen table gone couch table

Materials: Discontinued Ikea kitchen table, Gabbro stone slab, Rill (small) casters, wood screws Description: I wanted to tailor a couch table to my needs – with the right height, with a very sturdy tabletop and with swivel casters. At that time an inexpensive and simple kitchen table was available at…

Industrial-Modern guest chairs

Industrial-Modern guest chairs

Materials: LAVER stackable chairs Description: Materials include: black spray paint for plastic surfaces, painter’s tape, painter’s protective plastic, glue stick and 2″ stencils. Instructions: – glue stencils to chair backrest. – cover remained exposed area with tape & plastic. – spray with paint. – let dry 15 minutes. – gently…

Geek haven – Ikea robotic chair and table

Geek haven – Ikea robotic chair and table

Description: This is not my hack, but I found this link today and thought I would pass it along.”Conceived by NYU ITP student Adam Lassy, the ‘IKEA Robotics’ is an interestingly cool seating and table that encourage lazier living at your beck and call via a clever technological tweak.” See…

Gorm chairs

Gorm chairs

Materials: Gorm shelves, chair frames, circular saw and other assorted tools, screws Description: I am lucky to live in a university town that sells surplus equipment to the public. I’ve gotten most of my chairs there…some really nice ones, too. These chairs started out very nice, but were used as…

Stefan Rocks

Stefan Rocks

Materials: 2 Stefan chairs Description: The chair is made from two Stefans, one cut in half and a 85mm slice of the other inserted into the middle of the first one. This makes the chair wider and more suitable for a rocking chair with arms. The front legs and rails…

Gorm window seat

Gorm window seat

Materials: Gorm shelves, seasonal chair cushions Description: I got the idea for this from the Instructables post on Gorm benches Changes made were: I used the wider Gorm self, and rather than plywood I used 2 x 12’s for the top. Oddly, the 2 x 12 ( a piece of…

Modern slat coffee table

Modern slat coffee table

Materials: 2 Molger Benches and 1 set of 8″ Capita Legs Description: To recreate this coffee table all you have to do is follow these simple steps: 1) Carefully chisel off 6 slats off one of the bench tops which will be used for the sides later on. 2) Clamp…

Tullsta’s new legs

Tullsta’s new legs

Materials: IKEA TULLSTA Old chair base The back legs on the TULLSTA chair quickly began to weaken and threatened to break if someone sat down too quickly.  We had an old rocking chair from the ’70s; orange, worn and ugly. But I was very lucky because it had an excellent…

From Sweden to Morocco

From Sweden to Morocco

Materials: Erslev rug in light green Description: I created a stencil by tracing a Moroccan tile shape onto a piece of card stock and cutting out the negative space with an Exacto knife. I placed the stencil on the rug starting in the top left corner. I used a washable…

Lack spring table

Lack spring table

If you’re looking to add a splash of colour for Spring, here’s an easy and cheap way to do it. Sandra shows us how on her Lack bedside table. I took a white Lack side table I had and some post cards (from postal free), glued them on the table…

room divider for loft ikea

Room divider for a loft with IKEA BESTÅ

A room divider helps in using the empty space in a loft, turning the open plan into functional areas. Kevin divides up the loft space with this clever IKEA BESTÅ hack, separating the sleeping area from the home office space. The versatile room divider does double duty as storage for…

Mondrian coffee table

Mondrian coffee table

Lee had the idea for a long time but finally got round to designing and ordering supplies for the hack. Basically it is a Lack coffee table with a tile top. Quite a Mondrian, isn’t it? Related hacks: – Mosaic Lack coffee table – A touch of glass for the…

The many faces of Rickard

The many faces of Rickard

Emily has been hard at work modding the Rickard chair for her thesis. I like Citizen Cane, a nice mix of old and new. Pretty solid ideas, I must say. She says, “I’ve been hacking away at the $19.99 Rickard task chair. I’m working on my MFA Design thesis exploring…

IKEA Zebra bench and coffee table in one

IKEA Zebra bench and coffee table in one

It’s a bench but Melanie makes it do double (and triple) duty as a coffee table and sometimes computer table. I like that the “tables” are removable and can be repositioned where you want them to be. She writes: “This is an IKEA hack I made some time ago. I’m…

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