DIY Shoe Closet

Happy Thursday babes! It has been quite the week this week and I am so ready for it to be over! So today I have my most requested post, ever! I am soooo sorry it took me so long to post, but when Griffin built them we weren’t originally thinking of doing a post so we didn’t do a step by step pictures so I apologize if the steps are a little confusing. Let me know if you have any questions at all! But here it is, how to convert an Ikea Billy Book Shelves into a built in shoe closet! Ps you can also make it into a home library as well! Let’s get to it!

We decided to use two bookcases separated by a full size mirror. This same process can be done using a few bookcases to fill in an entire wall or by just putting a few together in a room. It is a low cost way to get the built in look that can really transform a room. We used the 79 1/2 inch Ikea Billy bookcase with the height extension unit that adds one more shelf at the top.

We started by using 2 x 4’s to build a frame for the bookcases to sit on. Using 2 x 4’s propped it up to the right height for the baseboards to sit flush with the bottom shelf. Once we placed the bookcase on the top of the frame, we secured it with the wall mounts that came in the box. Once secured, we cut and nailed in the baseboards around the bottom. There will also be a small gap between the front baseboard and the start of the bottom shelf. I found that a piece of lattice trim fit perfectly in the gap.

We wanted these to go from the floor to the ceiling so we had to make a box to fill in the space. I used 1/2-in sanded plywood to make a box that was 1/2-in bigger than the top of the bookcase to give it a little dimension. The box was made to slightly hang over the edge so I was able to glue and nail it in so it would stay in place. Crown molding was then cut and nailed to hide where the box meets the ceiling. We also nailed in some decorative trim around the bottom edge of the box to give it some more detail.

To give the edge of the bookcase some thickness, we glued and nailed some simple rounded trim flush with the outside edge. We then went back and filled in all of the nail holes with some wood filler and went to painting. We used Benjamin Moore’s Dove White on the baseboards in the room so we put a coat on the bookshelves to match. Go back and caulk any areas needed in the trim work for a clean look.

And that’s it! Again sorry for the lack of pictures, but it was actually pretty simple since you are just adding to the already made book shelves. Pretty fool proof! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend! <3