I love attempting an Ikea hack project! This one is definitely one of my proudest upcycles so far, as I did it all virtually for free!

It all started with me needing shelving units in our newly installed office. I managed to find these two Billy bookcases on the Trash Nothing that someone was giving away.

They were the brown mahogany style and definitely needed some love and TLC!

(Top Tip – if you’re looking for storage solution furniture in your home, I always check recycling websites first, before resorting to buying anything, they’re a great way to save the planet from waste and most of the stuff is usually free!)

I had some white satin wood paint left over from when I moved house, which was perfect for this, so I gave both shelving units two coats, except the back walls of the shelves.

I had a plan to cover the back walls of the shelves in patterned wallpaper. I’ve done this a few times on some of my old pieces of furniture. It’s a great way of bringing some colour into a room. Not needing whole rolls of wallpaper, I nipped down to my local B&Q and picked up a few samples of wallpaper in shades of blue, white and anything with a bit of metallic in it.

(Top tip number 2 – Wallpaper samples are totally free friends! Anytime I’m in a hardware store that sells wallpaper, I always stock up on a few samples of wallpaper, as I use it for so many things. Crafting, card making, present wrapping, scrapbooking. For anyone who’s not done this before, don’t open a new roll of wallpaper! There’s usually always one open, so look for that first and tear off a portion. And for those of you looking to screw theirs to the wall, make sure you do it before applying the wallpaper just to give it a really great finish.)

With my wallpaper samples ready, I measured out the hole I needed to fill and cut out the shapes I needed in the different patterns.

Using PVA glue, I stuck down the wallpaper to the back of each shelf. I had a bit of an oopsie moment, and ran out of wallpaper for two of the shelves so if you look closely, two of the shelves have a strip missing! But I thought if I made the gap at the bottom of the shelf, put books on those shelves, no one will ever notice! The joys of DIY projects!

I’m super pleased with the finished result! It looks quite smart in the office and a little more homey than plain office shelving!

What do you think? Have you tried an Ikea hack before? I’d love to hear more if so!