Ikea Hemnes Shoe Cabinet Hack

Hello and how have you been?  I know I’ve been M.I.A. for a bit but its with good reason.  I’ve been busy DIYing stuff. I have about three projects going and my house is chaotic.  Last week I mentioned that the hubs and I went to Ikea and that a “hack” was underway.  Today I’m going to show you one of the things I’ve been slaving away at. 

It’s the Ikea Hemnes Shoe Cabinet. When I spotted it in the store, my mental gears started churning. I could put one in the entry to hold all of my guests shoes, I can put one in the mud room, I can put one in the kitchen to store extra stuff. My kitchen theme is a lot of turquoise with hints of gray and yellow.  The trim is all white.  This cabinet came in three colors, black-brown, gray-brown and white.

The hubs did not agree that white was the best choice and requested that we paint it gray.  I wasn’t totally opposed to gray but I needed it to have a little bit more style.  During my daily Pinterest surf, I came across this beautiful dresser below.

via Lrosedesigns

The first thing to catch my eye was the color and then the crisp white trim sealed the deal.  Since I already had color on my walls, I would go for the same look with a few shades of gray.  The plan was to  buy the white shoe cabinet and paint the various gray stripes on it. This sounded easy enough right?  Wrong.  One thing Ikea forget to mention was that the solid wood version is only available in the black-brown color even though they all cost $100.  This little tidbit of information required some creative thinking.  I’m no stranger to elbow grease so I decided to buy the black-brown cabinet

Sand off the lacquer

Prime it with a high adhesion primer

Sand the primer to knock down the grain to get a silky smooth surface.I like how when you prime it always looks like you did it wrong but you didn’t.  Next I proceeded to mix my paints.  I bought a quart of Behr Premium Plus Paint & Primer in my signature Silky white and then I bought a sample of dark gray paint.  I carefully mixed into three separate cups graduated shades of gray.  Then I painted all the trim my darkest shade of gray.I used a small piece of scrapbook paper the color of my kitchen walls to determine which shades of gray would look best.  It also served as my template so that I would not confuse myself while painting.

Every surface that would be visible got two coats of paint using a high density foam roller.  All the others got one coat.  I decided to paint before assembly because it would look more professional than painting after assembly. Painting the doors with the ombre effect was really easy.  I measured and marked the boards into four separate areas and taped off  one section of the board at a time. I painted two coats of and then removed the tape while the paint was still wet. When it dried, I taped off the other side of the board but I made sure to overlap the previously painted area by about 1/16th of an inch so that I would not accidentally “miss a spot.”  Once it’s all painted, the human eye can not detect the difference. Next I painted over the other half of the board with the next lighter shade making sure that I completely covered this tiny slither of gray paint.  Since I used a paint and primer in one, you cannot see the first layer of paint through the new.Once they were all painted, everything got a coat of water based wipe on poly.  Ordinarily I would not use poly on satin paint but my paint sample was flat paint so my darker shades of gray have more of an enamel finish while the sheen increases as the shades get lighter. I let the poly dry for 24 hours and then began assembly.I assembled on the floor because my table was being used for another project at the moment.  This wreaked havoc on my knees and I will avoid ever doing it again. If you’ve ever assembled Ikea furniture you know that the instructions forbid using a power drill or impact driver. I figured, what’s the worst that could happen?  If I drilled through my board then I can just patch the hole and join using pocket screws.  I turned to torque to the lowest setting and slowly drilled all the screws into the wood.  If I had bought this piece in any of the other colors, this would be a big no-no as there is no way to repair particle board short of using Bondo. If you are observant you may have noticed that I’ve gone from following the instructions on the iPad to the iPhone because my battery died on the iPad and using a piece of paper is too much work.

Once my cabinet was assembled  I needed to secure it to the wall. I placed the cabinet without doors exactly where I wanted it avoiding any electrical outlets.  Because I know there is a pocket door frame in this wall I didn’t bother with the stud finder.  I drilled holes for the anchor through the holes in the back of the cabinet then moved the cabinet. I Inserted the anchor and gave it a couple of light taps with the hammer. Then I zipped two screws into the anchor securing the cabinet to the wall.I could not decide which knobs to put on it.  I had some leftover knobs from the rest of the kitchen and tried them out…I liked them but the hubs didn’t.  He opted for the knobs that were included with it so in the hopes of bringing this moment up in a discussion of who gets their way, I conceded and let him have his knobs. Here is the installed cabinet.  I like how it has no back legs so it lays flush against the wall. Because it is so narrow, it doesn’t hinder the flow of traffic through the kitchen.

For now, I’ve decided that it will hold my excess of kitchen linens, paper plates, cups and utensils and probably anything else that I can shove in there. Looking at it by itself, it looks kind of bare but don’t worry I’ve got a plan for that too.Here is a Photoshoped version of my vision.

Pretty Awesome right?  Maybe I will do the frame in white to tone down the turquoise.  Remember I’m repainting the kitchen soon so there will be a little less turquoise. Now I just have to learn how to do that awesome chalkboard handwriting.  Once I complete this wall I will have officially completed one task off my 2013 Home Improvement Goals.