I love a good Ikea Billy bookcase hack and today’s DIY is easily one of my favorite projects we’ve done in any of our homes! I’ve wanted built in bookcases for a long time, but knew that a custom job wasn’t in the budget. After looking on Pinterest, I came across an Ikea Billy Bookcase hack that was not only affordable, but also looked amazing. We chose the wall opposite the sectional in our living room in order to offset the depth of the room and add contrast.
Building the DIY Ikea Billy Bookcases
We purchased three of the Ikea Billy Bookcases, built them, and spaced them out evenly along the wall. We spaced the boards out 11.25 inches in order to eliminate any wasted space. From there, we cut boards and nailed them in between each bookcase. Each board is 75 inches tall by 11.25 inches wide, purchased from Home Depot. We also added a bottom trim piece to match the existing base trim we have in the living room to make it look like a custom built in.
Dashing Trappings Lighting
To add an incredible wow factor to the built in bookcase, we added three Provence sconces from Dashing Trappings. Dashing Trappings carries some of the most beautiful, unique, and classic home furnishings. These beautiful lights tie in to the color, look and feel of the home and are perfect in this space. The Provence sconces are designed for hardwiring, but we went with the magic light trick here and secured the lights into a top piece we cut, nailed, and added custom trim to.
Shop my favorite Dashing Trappings picks:
Once the Ikea Billy Bookcases were in place, we started adding trim pieces to the front of the board. We filled all the nail holes with spackle and sanded them down. I also filled in the bookcase holes to make it look more custom. We chose Simply White paint for the bookcase to tie in to the wall color of the room.
Styling your DIY Built In Bookcases
Waiting to style the DIY Ikea Billy Bookcases was so hard. I chose an assortment of photos, books, storage boxes, candles, and greenery. I incorporated many different textures, prints, and elements to make it intriguing yet cohesive. I also left a few of the shelves blank because I like the look of some bare space. I have a feeling I will be playing around with these and restyling throughout the year.
What do you think of our DIY Ikea Billy Bookcase hack? Have you done something similar? I’d love to see!
You can shop our living room here:
Such a cool idea, looks fantastic
thank you Gerrie!
Love this! Never would have thought to do that but we are looking into ideas now for our basement area. Does it make the room feel much smaller?
it actually makes it feel much bigger, clean, and organized!
Wow! That added a lot of value to your home. I love it!
thank you very much!
I’m curious where you got your baskets from? I can’t seem to find any wide with a small depth.
I found them at Home Goods, but if you google baskets for IKEA billy bookcases, there are a bunch that come up!
Wow! Looks great, how’d you think of such a great idea?
thank you so much! Pinterest is full of great DIY built in hacks like this!
Did you leave the backing on the IKEA bookcases?
Yes we did leave the backing on the ikea bookcases.