A Little Weekend DIY

I really took advantage of the gloomy, rainy, dank weather this long weekend and made the most out of it with a trip to Ikea. I have my mom here for the week and since she my favorite shopping sidekick I thought who better than to take with me!

I had quite a few items on the list that I needed to get. Of course I left with more than I had planned to purchase...c'est la vie!

So my main reason for going to Ikea is to get another Billy bookcase for my office. My husband has been asking me if he can keep his important paperwork in my office (ususally it is strewn all over the dining room table or on the chest in the guest bedroom in a towering pile).   I obliged just to get the stacks under control since I despise clutter and would really like my dining room table to be used for eating and pretty flower arrangements. So selfish, I know.

I already had one Billy Bookcase in my office but thought that it would be much easier to purchase another than rearrange the existing one.  I was already running out of space with all  my fabric, flooring, rug samples and catalogs.  I mean, if we got another bookcase we could split it. BRILLIANT!

The Ikea Billy bookcases are great for the money. They are only $59.99 and you can customize them anyway you want. Best of all they are one of the easies Ikea products to put together.

I purchased mine in white to match my office decor but then added a little bit of pop to this bookcase. 

Billy Bookcase

For Ikea products it is very important that you read the directions carefully (by read I really mean look at the pictures carefully as there aren't any words).  I put all the stationary pieces together first.  There are two shelves that are not adjustable so I had to make sure those were in place and secure before my next step. 

The backing of the bookcase is just board painted white. It's very flimsy and quite boring frankly. I didn't know what I wanted to do to make it different but I knew I didn't want it to be blah.

I toyed with the idea of painting it the aqua color of my office walls to give it some depth but I decided that was still too boring. I then thought of stenciling the back of it also in a fun, bright paint color.  I had done that before in a client's media center and it came out great but the only problem was the stencil I loved was too large in print for the back of the bookcase. It just wouldn't look right. 

 When I was at Ikea I grabbed 4 yards of fabric I thought would make a great Euro pillow for one of my guest rooms but I quickly realized I had a better place for it.... Behind the bookcase.

I love this fabric. It's modern, abstract and best of all black & white! My office is Aqua with black & white accents and hints of metallic. I have a black & white zebra rug, and this fabric would go great with it!

I measured out the fabric 31"W x 79"H and cut to size. 

I layed the bookcase backing down with white side up and placed my fabric over it with the fabric print side up. I then used Peel & Stick tape and placed it evenly throughout the back of the fabric. Once all the tape was on I slowly adhered it to the front of the backing board and used a level to make sure there were no lumps or bubbles in the fabric.  I placed the board onto the back of the bookcase, nailed in the finish nails to hold the board in place and it was finished. 

I repeated these steps on the other bookcase and that was it. It took me just over 1 hour to do (not including the assembly of the bookcase). 

My ideas are endless for this DIY.  There are so many different things you can do to make it your own. How would you design a DIY bookcase for your home?

Design Your Life!

XO,