DIY IKEA Kallax Hack (+ how to paint laminate cabinets so they actually last!)
The IKEA Kallax cabinet is one of those products which nearly everyone has in their house. They’re super simple and practical, with cubes in different combinations that can be used as cupboards, drawers or simply a space to display all manner of stuff. Their simplicity makes them super versatile, but it also means they’re very obviously IKEA.
This was my concern with our own IKEA Kallax. I love its practicality - it makes fantastic toy storage. But I wanted something that looked just a little more special in our space. So I decided to give our old unit a little facelift (or hack, if you will!).
How to paint laminate furniture
I was really set on painting our cabinet, because it was a particularly garish shade of green that I had started to hate!
Lots of the cheaper IKEA furniture is made of chipboard covered in laminate. Laminate is super hard to paint, because it’s shiny and the paint doesn’t easily stick to it. For this reason it’s super important to choose a primer that will help the paint adhere to the surface. I chose to use Dulux Difficult Surfaces primer, which worked really well.
I used two layers of the primer, two of my paint and two coats of a durable varnish (this one from B&Q). You could probably get away without the varnish if you used an eggshell or gloss paint, but I wanted to use a specific colour that I couldn’t get in those finishes. The paint I used was ‘pink 01’ by Lick - the perfect shade of pale pink. I love Lick paint because it’s low in VOCs and reasonably good for the environment. Leaving plenty of time between coats (ideally at least 24 hours) will help your paint to be extra durable and to withstand heavy traffic. This is the time to be patient!
You’ll need one tin of primer and one of the varnish. I got through one 5L tin of paint, though it’s best to check the coverage of whichever paint you decide to use, to see how much you’ll need.
How to make your own plywood handles
The cupboard handles that come with the Kallax are boring at best, but I didn’t have the budget (or the inclination!) to buy brand new handles. So I managed to turn the Kallax handles into something a little more special with a few cheap plywood shapes that I got on eBay.
You will need:
2 plywood shapes (like these) for every handle (so I used 8 to make 4 handles)
A drill with 16mm drill bit
A piece of scrap wood
Two clamps and two wooden blocks
Some wood glue or strong multi-surface glue (I used Gorilla glue)
Mark the centre of one of your plywood shapes and place it down on a piece of scrap wood. Place your two wooden blocks either side of your plywood piece so that they’re holding it in place, then clamp the two blocks to your bench or table. All this does is stop the shape turning as you drill through it. You can see in the pictures below how we set it up.
Drill a hole through the centre of 4 of your plywood pieces.
Glue one piece with a hole in to each of the four un-drilled pieces.
Glue the shapes onto your Kallax handles, so that the handle sits in the little hole you’ve created.
Attach your handles to the cabinet.
adding legs to your ikea cabinet
One final change that I made was to add new legs. We got these from Pretty Pegs, who make legs, handles and fronts for IKEA furniture, so that you can make it look a little more special. We used the Svea 150 legs, but they have a huge selection so you could take a look and choose whichever you like.
This page contains affiliate links, which earn me a little bit of commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
If you found this post helpful, please consider buying me a coffee!
You might like …
