Give Your IKEA Cabinet A 3D Makeover With This Simple Plywood Hack

IKEA cabinets are constructed with us, a DIY audience, in mind. What keeps the prices down is the requirement that we assemble them, though that's fairly easy to do, especially with tutorials galore splashed across social media. But what can take your IKEA cabinets to the next level is at-home customization. If you have a design bone in your body, this hack is for you. Get out your sketchpad because you can make over your cabinets by crafting thin plywood design elements, gluing them to the cabinet doors, and painting the whole unit! Think of it as applying a collage to your cabinets and then flushing the whole unit with color.

We've noticed that crafty home décor enthusiasts have been using their ingenuity to produce fabulous results. We've seen people use an IKEA BILLY Bookcase hack to elevate a plain bookshelf into a stunning walk-in shoe closet with added glass doors. People routinely swap out plain hardware, like pulls, with vintage doorknobs. As for creating super upscale cabinets, the owner of a multimillion-dollar home hired a subcontractor to customize dozens of IKEA cabinets she had installed in her kitchen, bathrooms, master closet, home office, and elsewhere. But you won't need a subcontractor for this project to look elegant. View the cabinet doors as a blank canvas ready for your own ingenuity and creativity.

IKEA's IVAR cabinets are perfect for this project because they're solid pine. When you've got a clear design in mind, the supplies you'll need include enough thin plywood to make all your cutouts, wood glue, primer, paint, and a paintbrush. If you have a workstation and saw set up, you're ready, otherwise, you'll need to have the pieces cut at your home goods store. Using a pencil and ruler or compass, draw your design shapes onto the plywood and cut them out with precision. Once cut, it may have rough edges, so you can consider cleaning up your plywood with an iron.

Unscrew or flip off the hinges from the cabinet doors to remove them, and place your cabinet door face up on your work surface. Using your ruler to position them correctly, carefully glue each component to the cabinet door. Allow a minimum of 30 to 45 minutes for the glue to dry. Use primer on your plywood, let that dry, then paint them. Note that you don't need to use a primer first on IVAR pine cabinets. Paint the rest of the cabinet, and when everything's dry, re-attach the doors! The final result is totally unique.