One Room Challenge – Week 4 – Ikea Hack

Hey friends!  TGIT!  First of all, I just want to say a big ol’ THANK YOU for all the birthday wishes.  It gave me so much joy reading your comments on yesterday’s post.  I loved hearing all about your favorite things.  And I now have a long list of new things to try, so thanks for that.  😉  The giveaway will be open until Sunday, so there is still time to enter if you haven’t already.

I’m back today with my One Room Challenge update.  For those just now tuning in, I’ve decided to join Calling It Home’s biannual design challenge where a group of designers and bloggers completely makeover a space in just six weeks.  I chose to work on our guest bedroom. I’m not going to lie at first I was thinking this challenge would be relatively easy for me.  I thought I had a pretty good head start considering that the room was already painted.  However, at the three week mark I decided to wallpaper the headboard wall (what was I thinking?!), and seeing as how it’s now week 4 and the wallpaper has yet to arrive…….well, now I’m thinking I could use a little time extension.

This week was kind of slow in the progress department.  A few more deliveries arrived, and I completed a little project I’ve been wanting to get done for months now.  That is what is so great about the challenge.  It lights a fire in you for sure.  All of a sudden the ideas are no longer just in your head; they’re coming to life.   Case in point, the simplest Ikea hack ever.

BEFORE

one room challenge - guest room

I’ve had this high gloss red Expedit shelving piece for many years.  Ikea no longer does the Expedit, now it’s called a Kallax and is a little different.  Anyhow, this piece lived in the basement of our Kentucky home.  It’s now in our guest room here in South Carolina, and it stores extra linens, towels and guest toiletries.  I like having local magazines and books available for overnight guests to peruse, and this piece is perfect for conveniently storing these items out of sight.

To give this piece a little extra something I made a trip to the hardware store for a few packages of these brass finish mending braces.  (found at Lowe’s)

mending braces

For about $20 and less than 30 minutes I ended up with nice campaign-style piece.

AFTER

campaign style ikea hack

All of a sudden the piece feels a bit more sophisticated, and the best part is if I get tired of this look I can just turn it around since both sides of this unit are the same.  This was such a simple little project.  I have no idea why I’ve been putting this off for so long.

*Little Tip – To attach the braces so that they are straight, use a sharpie to mark one of the wholes.  Then predrill that whole.  Attach the brace with just one screw first, then level out your brace and predrill the second hole. 

I love simple updates that bring major visual bang for the buck!  Even if the wallpaper doesn’t go up in time I’m still really glad I decided to participate in this challenge as the motivation to get things done is really inspiring!

Be sure to check out all the other participants week 4 progress right here!

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  • This post is making me regret selling my white bookcase from IKEA. Such a quick and easy update – but my, what an incredible change!

  • How cool is that?! It completely changes the piece…from more modern to a vintage British Empire-esk campaign trunk. Great idea!

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