An Easy Way to Completely Transform a Kallax Bookcase

Follow this simple tutorial to easily transform an IKEA Kallax bookcase into a beautiful piece of furniture. Part of the New Year New Room Refresh.

Welcome to week 2 of a New Year New Room Refresh challenge hosted by Casa Watkins Living.   If you are new to the challenge, here’s the scoop.  We have one month to “refresh” a room of our choice and will share our progress every Tuesday in January with the final reveal on the 29th.  Today I’m showing you how we transformed an IKEA Kallax bookcase into pretty storage for my daughter’s Vintage Boho Room Makeover.  We would love to see you participate too!  Just scroll to the bottom of the post to link up your room refresh progress each week.

Week 1: Vintage Boho Girls Room Inspiration  | Week 2:  An Ikea Hack for Chic Storage | Week 3:  Decorating with Boho Vintage Accessories | Week 4: How to use Wallpaper, Paint, and Trim All in One Room | Week 5: A Dresser Makeover without Sanding  | Week 6:  Boho Vintage Girl’s Bedroom Reveal 

IKEA Kallax Bookcase Makeover

You can check out the before pictures of my daughters room and inspiration from last week.  Here’s the Kallax bookcase as it looked a mere day ago.

We’ve had the bookcase for years and I love the storage it provides but I wanted it to look more like a real piece of furniture.   So I had my husband help me build a base and we added a few Kallax inserts from IKEA.

I knew I wanted a gold solid base as opposed to adding furniture feet.  It will prevent from little toys getting lost underneath!  Instead of buying new hardware for the inserts, I repurposed some geometric craft beads from my DIY stash by painting them gold and attached them with a screw, washer, and nut to the inserts. 

How to build a base for an IKEA Kallax hack:

Buy two 12 feet long 6″x2″ boards and have them cut into two 55″ inch and two 10″ inch pieces.Paint a coat of primer on one side of each.  Spray paint two coats of gold or brass.

Place the two 10″ pieces between the longer boards at each end and secure with a finishing nail in each corner.  

We sat the bookcase directly on top which makes all of the pieces flexible if we need or want to change it later.

This week, I really solidified the plans and am so excited to get down and dirty with chair molding, paint, and wallpaper!  It’s going to completely change this space.  Here’s an updated mood board with products I hope to use from our generous sponsors.

UPDATE: Here is how bookcase looks in the final reveal!

Milton and King | Hudson Valley Lighting Group | Velvet Finishes | boho luxe home | Art to Frames | Loom Decor | Home Dynamix

To do list:

• Update IKEA Kallax Bookcase with DIY base and inserts
• Add chair rail
• Paint the wall above chair rail
• Paint the ceiling
• Float the wall and install wallpaper
• Paint dresser and update hardware
• Bring in new bed and refresh bedding
• Install new curtain rod
• Hem curtains and hang
• Finish up with boho and vintage touches/styling

I hope you are as excited as we are to refresh a space this month.  Make sure to check out the other participating bloggers below and link up your own room makeover if you are joining us.

Casa Watkins Living // Domicile 37 // House Homemade // Iris Nacole // Monica Wants It //

Jeweled Interiors // Pocketful of Posies // This Is Our Bliss // Up To Date Interiors

Now it’s your turn to link up!  Please only share posts related to a room makeover or refresh you are tackling this month.