Learn how to make your own Mudroom Lockers using IKEA Bookcases! We couldn’t afford to have custom mudroom lockers built in our home so we figured out how to build them ourselves using IKEA bookcases. We just turned them into IKEA cubbies! It’s a great and inexpensive IKEA Hack. If you like this post you may also like this article on Laundry Room Storage Ideas.
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. Right after we bought our home we realized that the mudroom was not going to work for us, so we started brainstorming ideas for DIY mudroom lockers. With a new home, the budget was tight and we had to find a way to build them ourselves, but we don’t have a lot of carpentry experience.
Since my motto for the month on the blog is resourceful I thought I’d share with you how we created our own IKEA Mudroom Hack! It’s one of my all-time favorite DIY projects.
FYI: 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.
Our Mudroom Before:
This is our mudroom right after we moved in, to say it was not working for us is an understatement. It’s a combo mudroom/laundry room and is far too small for our family.
Our Mudroom Now with our IKEA Cubbies:
When we were planning out the lockers we realized we had a few problems:
1- 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.
2- We have limited carpentry skills. We are very “handy” but would not know how to build mudroom lockers from scratch.
3- I didn’t want just hooks on the wall, I wanted mudroom cubbies so people had a place to “stash” their stuff.
4- We needed to fit 5 lockers into a very small space.
5- We had a very limited budget
How we solved our Mudroom problem by building our own Mudroom Lockers using Ikea Bookcases:
How we turned the bookcases into lockers:
If you want to tackle building your own mudroom cubbies I’ll give you a few tips.
You May Also Like:
See how the other side of the room turned out– check out the Laundry Room Shelving Post Here
IKEA Raksog Hack- DIY Rolling Vanity Cart
How to Build a Backyard Fire Pit
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Pilgrim Days says
January 13, 2011 at 7:28 PMbrilliant!!!
farmhouse mama says
January 13, 2011 at 7:36 PMGreat 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
Chris says
January 13, 2011 at 7:42 PMPerfect. I have some of these exact shelves, and never considered using them this way. Thanks for sharing the inspiration.
Angela Yosten says
January 13, 2011 at 7:57 PMthat looks great! We have a mud room/laundry room combo too with the hooks and shoe shelves. LOVE IT!
Jen @ tatertotsandjello.com says
January 13, 2011 at 8:11 PMIt looks wonderful!! My mudroom is similarly shaped — long and thin. Great use of space!!
xox
Jen
Lisa says
January 13, 2011 at 8:38 PMAwesome idea! What a great solution for your family! Is there no end to the fabulousness of Ikea? Thanks for sharing your mudroom – love it.
Julie says
January 13, 2011 at 9:57 PMabsolutely love this!
Shannon Hairr Photography says
January 13, 2011 at 10:08 PMLove 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.
Amy says
January 13, 2011 at 10:44 PMThis is awsome. I love that each kid has a designated spot for school stuff! Thanks for sharing.
casserole says
January 13, 2011 at 11:13 PMwe did the same thing at our house, except ours was with a Besta bookcase. Great minds, right??
–Anne
Sarah says
January 14, 2011 at 12:20 AMThank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! GREAT IDEA!
Me says
January 14, 2011 at 2:18 AMWhat a great idea, I love them!
Angel says
January 14, 2011 at 2:59 AMYou are SO clever! I just wish I had thought of it when I planned out our mudroom.
Christine says
January 14, 2011 at 1:11 PMThanks for the great idea! I showed my husband and he agreed we should do this in our garage. Thanks for sharing!!!
Wani says
January 14, 2011 at 2:37 PMWhat a great storage solution!
michelleml says
January 14, 2011 at 3:32 PMOMG I love this idea but no ikea in our are.. Do they ship to your home
Thanks for sharing
Michelle
Cheryl says
January 14, 2011 at 10:11 PMSuch 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.
Mrs. Vincent says
January 14, 2011 at 10:26 PMThanks for posting! I love organizing ideas! We were just at Ikea last weekend…our oldest is finally ready to stay at Smaland!!! Bonus! 🙂
Keisha Lynn @ Project Campbell says
January 18, 2011 at 3:16 PMThanks a GREAT idea!!! I have the same narrow laundry room!!!
Charlie says
January 18, 2011 at 7:58 PMone 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
Noni says
January 20, 2011 at 3:59 PMOh 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!!!
sewtara says
January 21, 2011 at 9:03 PMThis is a fantastic idea!!
Totally plan to use it when I have a space for it.
Eileen says
January 24, 2011 at 12:28 AMOh 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! 🙂
Debra says
May 6, 2011 at 10:25 PMThanks 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!!
Katte says
June 23, 2011 at 1:18 AMAre the Billy Bookcases you used the 15 inch wide or 31 inch wide one? I’m totally going to do this 🙂
anirak says
March 6, 2012 at 11:59 PMExcellent, 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 🙂
Heidi says
April 12, 2012 at 11:53 AMWhat an absolutely BRILLIANT idea! Thanks for sharing – you’re finished product looks GREAT! 🙂
~H
Patchy says
June 22, 2012 at 1:58 PMI 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?
Tiffiny Felix says
July 24, 2012 at 1:01 AMI saw this on Pinterest and I *love* it! So clever! 😀
Erica says
June 27, 2013 at 10:31 PMI had a similar question to another follower: 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?
Thanks so much!
Melissa Mortenson says
June 27, 2013 at 10:34 PMHi,
The board does not run down the length of all of the lockers hooked together.
The backing of the bookcases comes in 1/2” from the back side of the bookcase so there is a space there that you an put a board in.
In each bookcase there is a separate board that is cut to the width of that bookcase. I hope that helps.
Michele says
November 2, 2016 at 3:44 PMWhat did u attach the board to? Where did u screw it to the back of the bookcase that was sturdy enough to hold all those backpacks, etc? Thanks!
Melissa Mortenson says
November 9, 2016 at 1:18 PMThe board is screwed into the wall. It sits between the back of the bookcase and the wall. Does that help?
Dawn says
July 25, 2013 at 10:34 AMI do not have a mud room but I did create the lockers (3) in my garage. I followed your directions exactly. After installing them, I screwed the cabinets together, put the 1×4 pieces of wood in the back to hold the hooks (Home Depot cut the wood to size for me) and secured it to the wall with the IKEA kit provided. My kids love it! Thank you so much for posting this!
Melissa Mortenson says
August 2, 2013 at 2:49 PMYeah!! I’m so glad that you were able to use the tutorial! We still have the lockers up years later and love them!
Angela says
August 18, 2013 at 1:22 AMI love this idea! we bought the BIlly bookcases tonight to give this a shot! I have a question though… what do you do about that “fixed” shelf right in the middle? It’s right in the middle of where we want the big vertical space for coats to be
Melissa Mortenson says
August 19, 2013 at 12:36 PMOurs had a fixed shelf but it was the shelf one right above where I put the coat hooks, maybe they’ve changed since then?
Angela says
August 30, 2013 at 1:43 AMI just checked the instructions, and the fixed shelf is indeed right in the middle now! Has anyone else been able to find a workaround?
Clara says
January 9, 2014 at 2:54 PMWe made these but used under shelf hooks that hang down like those I
n school lockers. Just screwed them to the bottom of shelf, no need for a board!
Denise says
April 7, 2014 at 12:36 PMThis will work in my mudroom – and I don’t have to wait for hubby to build it! I’m wondering how the material stands the test of time, being that it’s particle board and melamine. How do you keep wet boots and mitts from ruining the shelving? Is it chipping or warping at all? Thanks!!
Melissa Mortenson says
April 10, 2014 at 1:46 PMIt’s not chipping at all. We don’t put wet boots on it, since we have a tile floor in there… We live in a very humid area and it has not been a problem.
April says
June 9, 2014 at 8:11 PMI wanted to thank you for this awesome post! Those Ikea bookcases fit my space exactly. Our laundry/mud room dimensions are very similar, except mine is more narrow, with the washer coming right up to the door molding. Plus I have a door to my back yard out the back. I was able to fit 7 of the lockers with about an inch to spare (I wish I could have 8). And the depth was absolutely perfect. You saved me a fortune in custom cabinets. I searched and searched for a solution to making a place for my 6 kids to put their stuff (besides all over the floor), and this was perfect! We had to rip out some hideous/useless cabinets to do it, but that was worth it. I was also able to put one in my front coat closet in this awkward spot where a vent comes up or something and created dead space. So now I have all this really useful shelving there! Thank you thank you! I love the internet/pinterest 🙂
Melissa Mortenson says
June 10, 2014 at 10:58 AMYeah!!!
I’m sooooo glad the idea worked for you!!! We still have ours up and use them everyday. They have held up really well!!!
April says
May 11, 2015 at 4:50 PMI’m back with another question. I saw your laundry side update. It looks great! Mine needs one as well, but I’m not sure what I want. I don’t want a front loader, and we won’t need new machines for a LONG time, so stacking won’t work for us. I have considered shelving like that though. Here is the real question I have. My laundry room door opens into lockers 1 and 2 and straight across is my washer, which is comes all the way up to the door molding, so the walkway is basically 3 feet. Very narrow space. That door drives me crazy. I’ve considered taking the door off the hinges and having it open, but it’s fairly messy in there most of the time (thanks to not having a laundry system I like). I like closing that door :). But I hate that the door likes to close on my bum when I’m loading the washer, or moving clothes to the dryer. To get to my Dyson (exactly the one you have mounted on your wall by the door), which is hanging n locker #1 along with my broom, mop, spray cleaners, etc., or to get to the first kid locker, I have to close the door and risk getting whacked by whatever kid is hot on my trail. If the person who designed this house had thought clearly, a pocket door could have been put in. To put it in after the fact would cost me about $1000 and a lot of mess. There is no room for any kind of sliding barn door. The only idea I have come up with is take off the door and put up a curtain door, kind of like the French use to cover under a sink. The downside would be my kids potentially ripping it down while playing some absurd game of peekaboo. Do you have this problem with your door being in the way?? Have you come up with a solution? I mean besides keep my laundry room clean and taking the door off?
Melissa Mortenson says
May 18, 2015 at 11:54 AMNo, I love the door being off. I don’t really care if someone comes over and sees the mess.. if anyone gets that far into my house they know me pretty well anyways and wouldn’t expect it to be super clean.
April says
May 18, 2015 at 1:32 PMSo you have your door off? My laundry room is at the back of the house, but you walk right past it to go to the basement stairs. It is also directly in front of the door from the garage and next to the guest half bathroom. The one other solution I’ve found is double swinging doors, ala the Brady Bunch. I’m going to first try taking off the door, but then, I might try this. I kind of love the idea! Sharing in case it piques your interest as well. Sort of the best of both worlds, I’m hoping. I’ve found bi-fold doors that fit the space perfectly for sale on Craigslist for $30. The hinges are pricier, and then there is the labor that we will have to pay for. This is not a skill set we possess. Still mentally cursing the designer of this house for not putting in a pocket door…
In case you want to see how our locker room copy cat turned out, I posted this same question on Houzz, and someone there suggested the swinging doors. I included two panoramic pictures. Thanks again for the brilliant idea! People just don’t believe me when I say they are Ikea bookshelves.
April says
May 18, 2015 at 1:44 PMI went and took my door off right now and feel better already. That outside door window lets natural light into that hallway.
Eric Gilbertsen says
June 22, 2014 at 9:52 AMThanks for the great idea! I bought two wide and two narrow bookshelves to make cubbies for mom, dad and two kids. It turned out great: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericgilbertsen/14293946227/. In my case, I was working within the confines of a 100.5″ closet, and the bookshelves luckily added up to 99.5″ so it fit like a glove.
Mandy Whitehurst says
November 13, 2014 at 7:41 PMIn the middle of this very same project. Assembled the units but have a few questions about attaching.
1) Where did you screw the units together?
2) Regarding the 1×4 cut to the size of the shelf to go behind for screwing the hooks into, did you use one long piece the length of the whole unit or did you cut separate pieces to go behind each Billy. I’m wondering how you accounted for the 3/8 in. recess between back of unit and wall. Thanks!
trish says
January 21, 2015 at 2:37 PMwhere did you find the hooks- they look like coats wont fall off. THanks!
Melissa Mortenson says
January 27, 2015 at 4:59 PMThey are also from IKEA
Erica says
January 21, 2015 at 6:59 PMI built a two locker unit tonight – thanks for the awesome idea. I was wondering if you could elaborate on how you screwed the units together. I not a particularly handy or imaginative person so the more details the better!
Melissa Mortenson says
January 27, 2015 at 4:59 PMActually, we just screwed them to each other — we didn’t try to hide the screws or anything. Just find screws slightly smaller than the depth of two of the pieces.
Kia says
February 17, 2015 at 4:29 PMSo what size were the shelves that you picked? Someone said that you could use the under the shelf hooks at the top, could you also just use the shelves on the sides and then not have to worry about putting a board at the back? Thank you
Michele says
March 20, 2015 at 10:09 AMOk, getting ready to get 4 of these, can someone comment on the fixed shelf issue in the middle?
Does it have to be in the middle? Thanks!
Melissa Mortenson says
March 23, 2015 at 3:10 PMFor us the fixed shelf was at the bottom and the top… maybe you can move it if they’ve changed the design since then.
judy says
April 16, 2015 at 8:54 PMHow wide are these shelves? 11 inches? Does it come way out in doorway? My laundry room looks similar with only about 3 inches to wall behind the door. It looks great..exactly what I wanted to do. Thanx ..just concerned about space.
Melissa Mortenson says
April 25, 2015 at 10:18 AMThe shelves come in different widths, check at IKEA and they will have dimensions on their website.
Tonia says
April 28, 2015 at 10:46 PMWas wondering if you used the narrow Billy bookcase (15 3/4″) or the wider (31 1/2″). Thanks 😉
Melissa Mortenson says
April 29, 2015 at 12:56 PMThey were the narrower. But you could use either, depends on the size of your space.
Ranessa Krause says
July 22, 2015 at 5:54 PMHi Melissa,
This is a brilliant yet inexpensive way to revamp our disorganized mudroom.. thanks for this post!
I’d want to ask though how did you guys exactly screwed the billies altogether?
Shell says
October 15, 2015 at 3:37 PMI love billy and use them for everything. I have a hack I want to do, and your 1X4 may be the clue I needed. Let me ask anyway, usually the very middle shelf is a tight cam-locked fixed shelf for box integrity and stability. Did you relocate this shelf (and if so how), and if not, did you just achieve the same stability with the 1X4 or the bolting? If you did not relocate the fixed shelf, do you see any loss of integrity or strength in the “box” of the billy?
Thanks!
Melissa Mortenson says
October 19, 2015 at 3:32 PMNo, we left that shelf in place. When we bought the bookcases (in 2007) that fixed shelf was about 2/3 of the way down. It may have changed since then.
April says
October 20, 2015 at 10:22 PMI didn’t put the middle shelf in. Mine are bolted to the wall and to each other. We’ve been using them (with 6 young kids) for 2 years and no problems.
Kelly says
January 26, 2016 at 9:43 PMHi – looking into a budget friendly way to organize a new mudroom and love this idea. Are these the dimensions of the size you used – Width: 15 3/4 ” Depth: 11 ” Height: 79 1/2 ” ? Looks like the price went up to $69.99 each. Not as much of a steal but still a good deal. Thanks for your assistance!
Melissa Mortenson says
February 11, 2016 at 6:54 PMI don’t think ours were 79″ tall that might be the difference in price. Maybe they made them taller since then? It’s been 7 years since I made mine.
Ashleigh Bakker says
March 2, 2017 at 2:29 PMHi! I have been researching building these lockers and your tutorial is very helpful. I have a question about the wood behind the lockers- did you buy one large piece to put on the back of all lockers, or did you put wood on the back of each individual bookcase? Does that cause any gaps on the wall? I don’t even know where to start with that wood on back or what type to get at Home Depot. I have 4 bookshelves I got from IKEA today. Thank you for your post and for answering my question 🙂
Micah says
October 16, 2018 at 4:30 PMIs there a gap behind the particle board and the back of the bookcase where the 1×4 board gets attached? Otherwise attaching this to the back of the bookcase will offset it from the wall, won’t it?
Melissa Mortenson says
October 19, 2018 at 11:28 AMyes, there is a gap in the way that the bookcase is constructed so the board just fits in there flush.
Amanda says
February 21, 2019 at 3:57 PMCouple of questions about this… how does the bookcase fit flat against the wall if you put a piece of wood behind the particle board? (for the hooks)
I’m thinking about doing this in my basement- but the Billy’s that are double the size (31.5 inches) are so much cheaper. But then you lose the effect of having single lockers. I can’t find any images online- do you think it would look dumb to have the lockers wider? Without the separating piece every 15 inches?
Melissa Mortenson says
February 25, 2019 at 11:15 AMThe “panel” in the back of the bookcase is not flush with the back of the bookcase. It’s inset so the wood lies flush with the back of the bookcase when it’s attached to the panel.