Chopped Up & Built-in Besta

Materials: Besta cabinets, drywall, paint, circular saw

Description: Last year my husband and I transformed our standalone Besta cabinets from Ikea into an awesome built-in cabinet in the living room. It completely changed the room and best of all, we did it for very little money. We disassembled the cabinets, cut the sideboards to the height we wanted them, and reassembled them. Then came the actual "building them in" part. After removing the baseboard, we secured them to the wall and built them in with drywall. The last step was to paint the drywall, reattach the baseboard where needed, and we topped it off with wood.

It sort of acts as our unofficial mantle since we don't have one.

Because we had to empty all the contents of the cabinets to chop them up, we decided to reorganize the interior and added rods to store serving platters vertically on one side.

Since then, we've repainted the living room and now we like the built-ins even more. The best part? Since we already had the cabinets, the lumber, and leftover wall paint, the only expenses we had was the drywall (around 30€) and the parts for a couple of new outlets that we decided to add in the process (20€). Of course we still have to decide what color to stain the wood top - we're leaning towards a darkish stain but we're not sure. Maybe you're readers could help us out?

See more of the built-in Besta.

~ Ainhoa