Creating a functional and pretty home office can be easier with Ikea furniture. Here is an Ikea home office idea. By taking prefabricated Ikea cabinets, elevating them with trim and crown molding your will create a pretty and functional office.
Assessing your Space
When you’re designing your office be sure to take into account the space and what you need. The home office may need to be a multi functional room. A space for storage, working and family activities.
When we were designing the home office we measured the space and took time to figure out what design would be the most effective. Looking for function, style and organization.
We needed storage and a place to display items plus a pretty desk. Getting the most out of the home office.
Gathering all the Materials
Taking time to gather all the material to put your design together really helps in the build. We wanted to use a butcher block for the desk top. Taking into account the measurements of the pieces we purchased from Ikea. The designing and purchasing of product takes time, but taking your time will payoff in the end. It will save you time when you start putting it together, both in the building and running back to the store for more supplies.
Here is a gorgeous butcher block countertop. It comes in a variety of sizes.
Gathering all the materials so we had everything needed before we started putting it all together was key. Makes assembly and building day so much smoother. We used white file cabinets as the base for the butcher block desk top then add tower shelves on either side of the desk. Plus two smaller shelves that sit on the desk. The final step was adding a shelf between the tower bookcases resting on the desk.
When you’re doing a big project like this using my project planning sheets will really help get all your ducks in a row. You can grab the FREE project planning guides here.
Ikea Furniture Assembly
Ikea furniture assembly isn’t the funnest project but they do a good job with their instructions and hardware. The first piece always takes longer, a lot of learning as you go. Using Ikea furniture makes the build a lot easier than if you’re doing to from scratch. It saves time and often times money. If you start them young they’ll grow up to be amazing Ikea furniture builders.
Ikea is a modern Scandinavian design. Perfect for a clean minimalistic style for a functional clean office.
Putting the Pieces Together
We used bookcase towers on either side of the desk. For the base of the desk we used file cabinets for the legs. Because we were using duplicate pieces the second ones went together so much faster. We also used a smaller bookcase that sat on the desk for additional storage. All pieces purchased from Ikea.
To create a built in look we added a top shelf between smaller bookcases. Looking like a custom built in piece of furniture. Ikea does an amazing job of creating well built pieces of furniture with a variety of options so you can create something perfect for your home.
Elevating the Design
We didn’t want it to look like some book cases with a desk but a beautiful built in unit. Which is possible with a few extra steps. It takes a little more time but worth it in the end. Not a lot of additional cost but a little time, caulking and painting the added pieces for a built in unit.
The first step was adding 1 x 2 primed boards on the face of all the vertical bookcase joints. Giving it a finished look.
Next adding a crown or modern crown molding to the top of the unit for a cohesive piece.
After it is all put together you have the start of a beautiful office space. It is not hard to take it to the next level. Adding trim to the units creates a cohesive and elevated piece. The start of a functional and beautiful office.
Tape, Caulk and Paint the Trim
After it was all put together it was time to tape, caulk and paint the additional trim. Using the green painter tape to keep from getting paint on the Ikea cabinets. We took a piece and had paint color matched so we could paint the added trim the same color as the white Ikea cabinets.
After it was taped it was time to caulk all the seams and nail holes. Caulking the seams gives the seamless built in look. It took a little time but definitely worth the time. This is a step you don’t want to skip, it makes a huge difference with the finished project. This is my favorite caulk, I always have a few tubes on hand.
The caulk only takes 20 minutes to set before it is ready to paint. When caulking have damp shop towels or baby wipes on hand. After you run the seam of caulk wipe it with the paper towel or baby wipes for a smooth ready to paint finish. Because we kept the color of the Ikea cabinets the primed mdf trim pieces were all that needed painting. We only needed a small amount of paint we get got a sample can color matched.
Ikea Home Office Idea
Because we choose to use Ikea furniture we saved a lot of time putting this unit together. A day to find and purchase the materials, a day to put it together including the trim then a few house to caulk and paint the ‘custom’ unit.
The office now has ample storage and shelves to display special pieces.
