Hi, my honeys! The beauty of IKEA furniture is it's so hackable! Their simplistic designs allow for so much creativity to be added! This re-hack of our IKEA Billy Oxberg Cabinet is no different! If you want to see how I created this gorgeous faux arch style fluted cabinet, keep reading!
Back in early 2020, I purchased and hacked the IKEA Billy Oxberg Cabinet to make a beautiful cane cabinet that I saw my buddy LoneFoxHome do! (Tap HERE for his amazing hack). However, I did not use the adhesive products he recommended, and my cane webbing and wood spline started peeling away from the glass doors.
I knew I was going to have to fix the cabinet, and I put it off for a little while until I saw Erin from Kismet House's post on Tik Tok where she redid a non-IKEA cabinet she had with the cutest faux arches and similar trim. (HERE is her cabinet makeover video.) I was so inspired by her design, and I knew I could use the same concept and translate it onto my IKEA Billy Oxberg Cabinet. What I love most about this hack is that the glass panels on the bottom two sections are covered, so if you need to store some things that aren’t necessarily aesthetically pleasing you can do so on the bottom of the cabinet and store the pretty stuff at the top where the glass is! Let’s check out the inspo photo and get to work!
Inspo:
Supplies:
Pen
Large round disc or bowl to trace for arches
Tools:
Jigsaw -
Tape Measure
4 ft Level
Instructions:
1) Start by either building the cabinet section or if you already have it move the cabinet outside for painting.
2) Paint the sides of the cabinet as well at the bottom section of the base of the cabinet that is not covered by the doors. I have found that this chalk paint does not require you to prime first because it adheres so nicely! (Optional: You can paint all the shelves the same color as the cabinet, but I left mine the birch wood color for some contrast). Once your book case is dry, move it inside.
3) Use your Frog tape to tape off the glass in each section on both sides of the doors. Then paint both sides of the doors or one side if you don't care about the inside of the cabinet.
4) Cut your fluted trim to the height of the bottom two glass sections of your cabinet. We ended up using 16 pieces across and one dowel rod at the very end for spacing.
5) Glue your fluted trim pieces down to the glass by applying a line of Loctite glue to the glass AND to the back of the wood pieces for adherence. Be sure to hold the pieces down for a few seconds before moving on to the next piece, and make sure there's no gaps. If your trim piece is warped, cut a new piece--don't try to make it work, it'll just end up wanting to pop back up later. If at the very end, you still have a little space, cut your 1/4" wood dowel to length, and pop it in there with more glue to fill in the gap. You won't even be able to tell!
6) Once all of your fluted trim is glued down to the bottom section of both cabinet doors, use your Dap caulk to fill in any gaps, wait a half hour for it to dry, then paint over the wood with your cabinet color.
7) Now for the arches, you want to take your large circle or bowl and trace it all the way around onto the center of your hardboard with a pen. Make sure the width of your circle or bowl is not more than 24", which is the entire width of the two glass cabinet sections. At the halfway point of the circle you've drawn on both sides, use your level to draw two lines down to the full length of the glass sections on your cabinet and join them together with a line. Then make one line down the center cutting all of it in half. Here is a photo of what I mean:
8) Now, you just use your jigsaw with the scroll cut blade you bought to cut around the edges of your lines and to cut your arch in half to make two sections, one for each door for your cabinet. I borrowed my husband for this part of the project because he has the steadier hand between the two of us.
9) Paint your arches with your cabinet paint, then use the same Loctite glue adhere it to the glass. You may need a little DAP caulk around the edges, so let that dry, and then give it another quick coat of paint, making sure to block off the glass with more tape or an object.
10) Once your doors are dry, put your hardware on by making an additional hole above the existing knob holes on each door, then put your cabinet doors back on your cabinet!
11) ADMIRE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT!
Thank y'all so much for checking out this IKEA diy hack! Make sure to leave some love on my Instagram reveal post HERE! That would mean so much to me! If you do this diy, please tag me and @kismet_house on Instagram so we can see!