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ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER
HOUSE TYPE: House
PROJECT TYPE: Bedroom
STYLE: Colorful, contemporary
SKILL LEVEL: Do it yourself
RENTAL FRIENDLY: No
IKEA BILLY bookcases look great on their own, but they also look great with a little finish and paint around them, made to look like custom built-ins. Christine Amorose Merrills (@cestchristine) IKEA BILLY hack fully illustrates this point. The BILLYs before it certainly didn’t look bad, but the next one will take your breath away – especially for book lovers.
“I love reading, and I dreamed of having a reading nook of my own,” says Merrill. “We moved some bookcases and some plants, but it felt more like a wasted space.” That is, until they made the bookcases look built-in.
Paint and paneling made the biggest difference.
“The biggest step was building the bookcases and making them ‘built-in’ by adding the wood paneling and painting them all to match the rest of our bedroom,” says Merrill, adding that one of the biggest obstacles waiting for enough BILLY was. bookcases in stock.
“Once the shelves were in, it already felt like a more complete space!” The project cost five BILLYs and the paint color is Valspar’s coastal twilight.
“I’m still in awe of how much paint can completely change something’s appearance,” says Merrill. “Having the white bookcases next to our painted bedroom walls didn’t have the same effect at all!”
Merrill recommends really taking the time to do a quality paint job. Bookshelf painting is “an exercise in both patience and precision,” she adds.
Furniture and accessories (and books of course) completed the cozy corner.
“The final step was to figure out a good, comfortable setup for an afternoon of reading,” says Merrill. “I know the style of the shelves will continue to evolve in the coming years because I enjoy displaying items we’ve collected on our trips here, so it’s a fun ongoing project for me to rearrange things .”
Her main priority after the renovation was finding a house a comfortable chair that would suit her, two pugs and a toddler. Merrill also added a hanging lampa vintage globe, baskets, a side tableand a discarded rug.
“What has made me happiest is that it is not only a space where I can enjoy reading myself, but it has really become a space full of books that encourages a love of reading in my daughter too,” she says. “We have filled the bottom baskets with books for her (mostly children’s books of mine that my mom saved), and she loves to come in here and browse through books on the chair by herself or let us both cuddle up so I can read to her.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
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