Materials: Brilliant White Abstrakt 8'x3' Finishing Panel & Pax Wardrobe Door, 3 old Ikea pine office cupboards, 8 Capita Legs
Description: I'm sure you could do this hack with any old cupboards. The inspiration came after completing the finishing panels in our kitchen (and learning from that experience) and we have some old Ikea pine wall cabinets that we just weren't ready to part with, but were not in keeping with the renovations in our house.
We have an open concept kitchen/dining area, and hey presto, using the same finishing panels as we have for the kitchen doors, the transition is beautiful and seamless. The nice thing about using the high cupboards, for a sideboard is that they are nice and narrow, but deep enough for large kitchen plates. I like the glass doors to show the beautiful crockery and glassware.
As to HOW we made it:
In the "As-Is" section of Ikea, we found 1 Ultrabrilliant white 8'x3' finishing panel from a kitchen (50% off - $90) and 1 Pax Wardrobe door, same finish, same thickness, also 50% off ($50).
Using a circular saw cut the finishing panel in half to fit your cupboards, keeping the good edges towards the front. The wardrobe door was cut for the side pieces.
NOTE: When cutting, keep the side that will be "rough" face up . The finish will look bad, but don't worry, you'll place that side against the cupboards and it won't show.
Follow Ikea's standard kitchen installation instructions for:
1) Screwing cupboards together (we used their kitchen cabinet screws too)
2) Attaching finishing pieces - except you won't have pre-drilled holes, so you'll have to make your own.
Add a depth guide to your drill bit so you don't drill through the panels!
Add the legs of your choice. We used 8" Capita legs.
This was completed in one evening, since the cupboards were already made (over 5 years ago)! We actually gutted our house and have been slowly rebuilding it. If you're interested to see more about our "just two weeks" (think The Money Pit
movie - cough - five year) renovation project of a 100-year old triplex in Montreal, click here. ~ Joanna and Marc, Montreal
