I really really love IKEA… I think I’ve said that here before, but it’s worth repeating. The thing that I realized I like about IKEA is that most of their stuff is simple, making it very easy to adapt to different purposes.
Since my motto for the month on the blog is resourceful I thought I’d share with you how we made lockers in our mud room easily and inexpensively using bookcases I found at IKEA.
The photos are not great, it’s a very narrow room with terrible light and even with a separate flash is very hard to take photos of.
This is our mud room right after we moved in, it was not working for us. It’s a combo mud room/laundry room and is way to small for our family.
This is it before…. It’s just a hallway that leads from the garage into the house. It drives me crazy and is the one thing I would change about my house if I could…
Now I will say, the laundry side of this room is still NOT working for me. It’s one of my big projects for 2011 to figure out what to do with it, but I have NO idea… open for suggestions on that one.
BUT
the mud room side thankfully is now working for us. I’ll show you what we did about a year ago, and it’s still working great.
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| such a narrow room it’s really hard to get a good photo of it |
Since the room is narrow and most “pre made” lockers are wide at the base, none of the ones that I found online and in stores would work for us. They would all just stick out too much from the wall and you could not walk through the room.
Then one evening while I was perusing my IKEA catalog I saw this… It’s the Billy bookcase, and it’s only $34 for the size I needed. It would have been ideal to have someone come and build us custom lockers but it wasn’t in the budget at that time.
So what we did was buy 5 Billy Bookcases (it’s what would fit and there are 5 of us) and install them next to each other. I also installed a hook at the end for long coats that would not fit in the lockers.
Then instead of putting the shelves spaced evenly throughout the bookcase we left a space in the middle to attach a hook for backpacks and coats. It worked great because the bookcases have holes all up the side so we could put the shelves exactly where we needed them. If you had really small kids you could install the hooks even lower.
We then left 2 shelves on the top for things like lunchboxes & books.
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| how embarrassing, now you can see what shoes we all wear :) |
and 2 shelves on the bottom for shoes.
If you want to tackle this project I’ll give you a few tips.
-After you have the bookshelves where you want them, screw them together. So you have one large piece, it will help with stability.
-The bookcases come with a precut notch in the back to make them lie flat against the wall, if your baseboard is taller than the notch you will need to cut the notch larger. It’s very important that they fit flat against the wall.
-The back of the bookcases are just particle board, not strong enough to hold a coat hook. You will need to buy a 1×4 piece of wood and cut it to the width of the shelf and place it behind the bookshelf. Then you will screw your coat hooks through the back of the shelves and into that wood.
-Use the anti tip kit that comes with the bookcases so no one will try to climb up and pull the whole thing onto them. (make sure you install them into a stud in the wall, we installed as many as we could just to be extra sure).
I had plans to use the bookcases only temporarily then get custom lockers made later, but it’s been over a year and they work so well that I don’t think I’m going to do that. I’d rather use the money for another project in the house.
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brilliant!!!
Great idea to keep organized!
I’m loving this idea from another blog…. just a suggestion to add some sorting space to your laundry area
http://showandtell-sausha.blogspot.com/2010/03/laundry-room.html
Perfect. I have some of these exact shelves, and never considered using them this way. Thanks for sharing the inspiration.
that looks great! We have a mud room/laundry room combo too with the hooks and shoe shelves. LOVE IT!
It looks wonderful!! My mudroom is similarly shaped — long and thin. Great use of space!!
xox
Jen
Awesome idea! What a great solution for your family! Is there no end to the fabulousness of Ikea? Thanks for sharing your mudroom – love it.
absolutely love this!
Love it!! For the laundry side, I saw a DIY project for building a topper for front loading machines that gives you a place to fold laundry ot store things. It makes it look customized.
This is awsome. I love that each kid has a designated spot for school stuff! Thanks for sharing.
we did the same thing at our house, except ours was with a Besta bookcase. Great minds, right??
–Anne
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! GREAT IDEA!
What a great idea, I love them!
You are SO clever! I just wish I had thought of it when I planned out our mudroom.
Thanks for the great idea! I showed my husband and he agreed we should do this in our garage. Thanks for sharing!!!
What a great storage solution!
OMG I love this idea but no ikea in our are.. Do they ship to your home
Thanks for sharing
Michelle
Such a great idea. I can’t wait until we have a bit more space when we move. I am filing this idea away for future use. So inexpensive and really perfect. Accessible and simple and easy to use for all your storage needs.
Thanks for posting! I love organizing ideas! We were just at Ikea last weekend…our oldest is finally ready to stay at Smaland!!! Bonus! :)
Thanks a GREAT idea!!! I have the same narrow laundry room!!!
one thing that a friend of mine had in her laundry room was a wall full of cubby cubes and each person had their own cube that had their clean laundry folded waiting for pick up, there was room for the detergent and baskets and so forth. What about something like that hanging on the wall. it would match what you just put up for the mud room area.
fyi, I like y’alls shoes, they are cute
Oh I am so very excited. My husband and I were going to tackle my mud room last weekend but we ran out of time but this totally has me motivate. Wish Ikea weren’t 3 hrs away!!
Thanks!!! Oh and glad you’re enjoying the UT Mtns!!!
This is a fantastic idea!!
Totally plan to use it when I have a space for it.
Oh my goodness..Wonderful! How many times have I stared at Billy bookcases and never would I have thought to do something this clever! It makes me wish I had a mud room! :)
Thanks for the idea. I designed built-in cubbies for our mudroom in our last house. Our current house has no mudroom. The foyer contains the front door, garage door, two tiny closets & the basement door. The kids just weren’t using the inadequate system I had set up.
We put together the Billy cubbies last weekend and installed them in the study….starting to look like we homeschool in there! The cubbies are great and the boys are putting their things away!!
Are the Billy Bookcases you used the 15 inch wide or 31 inch wide one? I’m totally going to do this :)
Excellent, someone has already done what I just thought of doing! I initially intended getting rid of my Billy bookcase and creating a nice little mudroom with bench seat etc. but this is such a better idea and you’ve told me how to hang the hooks! Fantastic idea, thanks so much for sharing :)
What an absolutely BRILLIANT idea! Thanks for sharing – you’re finished product looks GREAT! :)
~H
I love this idea and would like to use it in our mudroom. But can you possibly tell me how the board works that goes behind the bookshelf? Doesn’t this make the entire thing stick out from the wall by the thickness of the board?
I saw this on Pinterest and I *love* it! So clever! :D
Ola! Melissa Mortenson,
I know what you mean, I own a 1985 CJ7 Jeep Renegade that I used to take camping and four wheel drive trips in. It has air lockers, a 4 1/2 lift, mud tires, etc. I bought a bolt on kit to convert the jeep from a carborator to fuel injection system, but then this project was stopped in its tracks by a divorce in which I needed to leave my jeep at my ex’s house as I moved out to a different city with no room or time to complete the project. Now my jeep is just sitting in a garage 80 miles away and I am not sure how can sell it. There is no place to tow it to and no budget for that. My ex is cooperative and does not care that the jeep remains in his garage and it is clearly and legally mine and registered in my name only. I just don’t want it to sit there and would like someone to get some use out of it. Anyone have any suggestions how to deal with this situation or how much to ask for. Since my project was interrupted, the jeep is not running currently, but someone who knows what they are doing should be able to get it running quickly. It has 90,000 miles on it. Thanks for your imput!
Keep up the good work