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The best IKEA hacks to customize your furniture
A plain IKEA piece is one everyone owns. Left as is, it announces its origin from across the room and gives the whole space a slightly generic feel. Yet interior designers use IKEA all the time: the difference is they never let it leave the box untouched. They hack it. A few targeted changes, often for under 50 dollars, and the same piece passes for something worth several hundred.
In this guide you will see the three changes that transform any piece, the most effective hacks model by model, and the technical mistakes to avoid so the result lasts.
The full hack in three steps
IKEA KALLAX shelving unit, easy to customize with inserts and drawers
The base method works on almost any piece and comes down to three stacked actions.
- The legs (about 25 dollars): replace the bottom of the piece with four solid oak legs, 15 to 20 cm tall. The piece no longer touches the floor, which creates an instant airy effect. This is the most visible change.
- The handles (about 15 dollars): brushed brass, leather or fluted wood. Handles are a piece's signature: they are often what gives away the original IKEA look.
- The paint (about 10 dollars): a natural tone like sage green, terracotta or petrol blue, in matte furniture paint, two coats.
Total: around 50 dollars, 2 hours of work, and a result that recalls a branded dresser worth 800 dollars. The trick pros use: they hack all of their IKEA pieces, never just one. Each change is cheap on its own, but together they shift the whole piece into another category. The fastest, most rewarding place to start is the handles: 15 dollars, 10 minutes and a screwdriver are enough to see the difference.
KALLAX: the chameleon
The KALLAX is probably the easiest piece to repurpose.
- Oak legs plus sage green paint: it becomes a boho sideboard.
- Laid horizontally with a cushion on top: an entryway bench.
- Fluted doors on the open cubes: an elegant TV unit.
Note that its core is hollow (honeycomb): for the legs, a mounting plate is essential.
BESTÅ: the easiest to transform
The BESTÅ has pre-drilled M8 holes underneath, so the legs screw on directly, with no extra work.
- Brass legs plus leather handles: a console that reads as luxury.
- Matte black paint plus a marble top: a chic sideboard.
- Wall-mounted with an LED strip below: a floating TV unit.
MALM: the dresser with character
- Brass handles plus terracotta paint: a dresser with character.
- A marble top set on it: an elegant dressing table.
- Wallpaper glued onto the drawer fronts: a one-of-a-kind piece.
Like the KALLAX, the MALM has a hollow core: plan a mounting plate for the legs. On drawers, check the center distance carefully, since small and large drawers often use different spacing (96 mm versus 128 mm).
IVAR and PAX: made-to-measure storage
The IVAR is solid pine, which makes it ideal for wood finishes.
- Walnut wood stain plus metal legs: an industrial bookcase.
- White paint plus rattan touches: a boho shelf.
- Simply oiled: a raw Scandinavian storage unit.
The PAX is mostly worked through its front:
- Smoked mirror doors: a wardrobe that reads as luxury.
- A fluted wood front: a closet that looks custom-built.
- Paint matched to your wall color: a near-invisible built-in.
The technique that makes it last
Three points decide how long your hack survives.
- The handles: measure the center distance (the gap between the two holes, often 96, 128 or 160 mm) before buying, or the holes will not line up. To drill without chipping, stick painter's tape on, mark the holes in pencil and drill through it.
- The legs: check whether the panel is solid or hollow before screwing. Solid, you screw straight in; hollow (KALLAX, MALM), you need a mounting plate.
- Painting melamine: degrease with rubbing alcohol, sand with 120 grit, apply a bonding primer (let it dry 24 hours), then two coats of matte or satin paint, leaving 12 hours between coats. Use a foam roller, never a fluffy one, and a small angled brush for the edges, to avoid roller marks.
To keep things coherent once your pieces are customized, lean on the 60-30-10 rule, and if you are torn between hacking and replacing, compare with our affordable furniture alternatives.
The mistakes that ruin it
- Hacking only one element (legs or handles): the effect stays halfway there.
- Painting without sanding or priming: the paint flakes off within a few weeks.
- Choosing cheap handles: at 2 dollars they look cheap and give the trick away.
- Legs too tall or too short: the piece looks unbalanced.
- A loud color: a neon terracotta kills the high-end effect. Stick to matte, natural tones.
Test the look before you start
Before buying legs, handles or a can of paint, it helps to see the result first. With Shopia, you photograph your piece in its room, pick a new finish, and get a realistic render in a few minutes. You compare before and after and try several color and material combinations, sage green against terracotta, brass against leather, before you reach for the tools, so you can be sure of your choice.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make IKEA furniture look less recognizable ?
The secret is three changes done together: swap the legs, swap the handles and repaint the front. Solid oak legs give an airy, lifted look, brass or leather handles erase the IKEA signature, and a matte paint in a natural tone finishes the transformation. A single hack stays a half measure: it is stacking all three that makes the piece unrecognizable. Plan on roughly 50 dollars and about 2 hours of work.
Do you need to sand IKEA furniture before painting it ?
Yes, and this is the step most people skip, which makes the paint flake off within weeks. On melamine, degrease with rubbing alcohol, sand lightly with 120 grit (just to scratch the surface, not strip it) then apply a bonding primer. Without that primer the paint will not stick. With it, two coats of matte acrylic last for years.
Can you screw legs straight onto IKEA furniture ?
It depends on the piece. KALLAX and MALM have a hollow honeycomb core: screwing straight into it without care makes the legs come loose in two weeks. The fix is a mounting plate that spreads the weight over a larger area. BESTÅ, on the other hand, has pre-drilled M8 holes underneath, so the legs screw on directly, which makes it the easiest to hack.
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