What I want: Jonathan Adler’s Jacques Étagère
What it costs: $2,400
My budget: $100
The Solution: Ikea Hack. Time to take a cue from some of my favourite innovative designers and purchase a simple, run-of-the-mill piece from Ikea and give it a facelift with a bit of time and ingenuity.
Domaine Home online shows us just how stylish these pieces can be:
Bloggers at Pencil Shavings Studio and Little Green Notebook also have a wonderful step by step instruction manual to turn your brown utilitarian bookshelf into solid gold (no pun intended).
You’ll need:
- VITTSJÖ shelving unit
- Four cans of 24 carat gold spray paint
- White paint or marble contact paper
- About two hours over two days.
How To:
I purchased my VITTSJÖ bookshelf and bought some gold spray paint from Michaels. You’ll need about four cans. You could use gold leaf paper, but it would be incredibly time-consuming and I was happy with the outcome using the spray paint.
Put the bookcase together first before spray painting (without the glass shelves) to get a more even flow with the spray paint and also to ensure that it dries properly with out sticking or spotting. You’ll also need a backyard or an open space to do the spray painting, as the fumes were pretty intense.
The idea is to make the shelves look like marble (without actually forking out for marble), but I painted the two black shelves white as my marble-contact-paper-application skills leave a lot to be desired. But if you’re game, give the marble contact paper a shot — the results are pretty stellar.
Check out what I came out with:
Before: After:
The basic bitch of bookshelves.
Pure gold. (Except, not actually.)
Adorable puppy not included, so don’t even think about it. But do check out these other awesome Ikea hacks for more inspiration:
- The Every Girl
- The Hunted Interior
- Style Me Pretty
Emma Gregg is in-house counsel at Travelers Canada, and
Precedent’s design columnist. Read more of her tips for DIY decor.