Faux fireplace mantel - IKEA hack
Started this project cose I always wanted a mantel for hanging Christmas stockings and voila, here it is the IKEA hack faux fireplace. Finished & ready for Halloween.
So, I needed cabinets that were 37 cm in depth. Then on the sides, 30cm wide cabinets with shelves and in the middle a 80cm wide cabinet with drawers. You can remove from the plan the drawers you don't need (in my case the bottom two drawers were deleted so that the shopping cart is accurate). To remove the drawers you go to the right side menu to Customize and then you have the drawers in the order they are shown in the plan top down. Just remove the fronts and also the drawer system as well.
During the planning process I realized that I don't need the base and the legs of the base kitchen cabinets and then switched from base cabinets to wall cabinets (37cm depth and 80cm height). For the middle one I selected the one with doors and then Customized it and removed the doors and the shelves.
2 pieces METOD wall cabinet frame white 30x37x80 cm
2 pieces VEDDINGE door white 30x80 cm (this is the plain door front that I have used)
2 sets of UTRUSTA shelf white 30x37 cm (this package comes with 2 shelves)
2 sets of UTRUSTA hinge w b-in damper for kitchen 110 ° (this package comes with 2 hinges)
1 pieces METOD wall cabinet frame white 80x37x80 cm (for the middle part)
1 piece MAXIMERA drawer, medium white 80x37 cm
For the bottom part and the top I chose to use a table top that came almost in the exact measurements that I needed -
Next update will be with Christmas decorations and those X-mas stockings I was mentioning.
Next update will be with Christmas decorations and those X-mas stockings I was mentioning.
I wanted something simple and easy to put together without too much carpentry skills required. So this is something that requires a very limited number of power tools and 3 cuts with a circular saw.
The inspiration came from Pinterest where I have seen a similar faux fireplace with storage. The only difference was that the upper part wasn't a drawer, but a door.
It all started with the planning on paper and using the IKEA kitchen planning tool.
IKEA's METOD kitchen range is so customizable and you can find all the dimensions you need for your cabinets. To find the exact parts that I needed and all the IKEA parts, I used the IKEA kitchen planner.
During the planning process I realized that I don't need the base and the legs of the base kitchen cabinets and then switched from base cabinets to wall cabinets (37cm depth and 80cm height). For the middle one I selected the one with doors and then Customized it and removed the doors and the shelves.
If you don't want to do the door molding yourself you can choose doors that already have a molding design to them. Plenty of options to choose from. Also if you want to go on black that is possible as IKEA has the METOD frames on wood like black.
Then in the planning tool you get the list of items that you need, you just need to select from the list the items that you need, as in this planning exercise more items are listed than the needed ones. You can create your own shopping cart or favorites list by copying the article code from the list in the planning tool.
This is the shopping list that I have used:
2 pieces VEDDINGE door white 30x80 cm (this is the plain door front that I have used)
2 sets of UTRUSTA shelf white 30x37 cm (this package comes with 2 shelves)
2 sets of UTRUSTA hinge w b-in damper for kitchen 110 ° (this package comes with 2 hinges)
1 pieces METOD wall cabinet frame white 80x37x80 cm (for the middle part)
1 piece MAXIMERA drawer, medium white 80x37 cm
1 piece VEDDINGE drawer front white 80x20 cm (same model as the door fronts)
1 piece UTRUSTA Push opener (instead of handles)
1 piece UTRUSTA Push opener (instead of handles)
3 pieces LINNMON Table top, white150x75 cm (one for the bottom and 2 for the top).
The only cut with a power tool that was needed for these table tops was to reduce the depth from 75cm to 42cm. So the bottom and the top goes over the cabinets 5cm in the front and sides (no need for the back).
I placed the order at IKEA and collected it from the store (for pandemic times click and collect seemed the safest option for me).
Then I started assembling the furniture and this is how it looked in phase one:
For phase two I needed the circular saw to do the clean cut on the table tops. Here I had some help from my partner.
After I had the base and the top done the wallpaper was next. For the base and the inside of the fireplace / middle cabinet I have used a white wash brick patterned wallpaper. This goes perfect with my entire living room design (I have light grey walls and most of the furniture is white).
Phase tree was applying the molding. I chose to apply the molding myself to create more of a fireplace look. I have purchased Styrofoam wall molding that has a high density (so it behaves like wood). For cutting the molding I used a hand saw and a device that helps you to keep the cutting angles precise.
Finished & ready for Halloween.
