I love the look of built-ins, and Ikea Hemnes furniture pieces make a great base for semi-DIY built-ins, because they are made of solid wood and have flush sides to line up neatly with each other. At our last house, I created a built-in look for a fireplace wall using Hemnes shelves. In our current living room, I have two Hemnes bookcases, and I wanted to make them look more built-in, as well as increase the storage by adding extensions to the top, so they reach the ceiling.

To build my extensions, I started looking for parts that I could use. I was hoping to use a second-hand Hemnes coffee table or bookshelf, but none were listed for sale at the moment. After browsing some more, I was fortunate to come across these two wooden bookcases for free on Craigslist. I also had a small Hemnes shelf that I had altered years ago to fit in a specific spot in our old house. It has kind of floated around to different uses since then, but we aren’t using it right now, so I decided to take it apart to get a match for the side panels of the bookshelves.

After quite a bit of experimentation, sawing, joining, sanding, painting, etc. I was able to use the parts from the free bookcases, together with spare Hemnes parts, to make two shelf extensions to add on top of our bookcases. I finished off the project with some molding around the top to tie it all together!

This was a step up for me in terms of construction skills, and now I feel excited to tackle my next furniture building project. What do you think it will be??

Cheers,

Julie AKA “Jewels”