Old Storage Makeover Using Ikea Kallax 5x5 Unit

We moved into a 1930's house a few years ago, and the old storage cupboards in my daughters bedroom where not practical. We decided to revamp them using an Ikea Kallax 5x5 Unit in order to provide useful storage and a display area for Lego projects etc whilst modernising the look of the room.

I never intended for this to be an instructable, but I did take a few photos along the way. So, when I saw the home improvement competition, I thought I'd try to work the photos into an instructable, with hopefully enough information and inspiration to prove useful to someone. Please vote for me!

For this project, you will need:

Supplies

• A suitable old storage area / hole in the wall.
• Some plasterboards.
• Some timber studding.
• Hardboard or Plywood sheet (Optional)
• Suitable wood / plasterboard screws.
• Some skirting board - if you can match your existing skirting, all the better but not essential.
• Some picture ral - again, if you can match it up to existing, great.
• Decorators caulk.
• RGP LED Strip.
• Foam insulation board.
• Aluminium vent cover.
• Scrim tape.
• Plasterboard Jointing Compound.

Tools:

• Screw Driver / Impact Driver.
• Plasterboard Saw.
• Handsaw.
• Mitre Block.
• Sandpaper - various grades.
• Caulking Gun.

The old storage consisted of two smallish cupboards, seperated by a thin ply partition. Access was via two original 1930's 4-panel doors. There was nothing inside the cupboards, other than a high level shelf in the right hand one.

I started by removing the doors, the partition, the shelf, and skirting, to leave a large, square'ish opening. I then chipped off the old crumbling (and mould ridden in some cases) plaster from the sides and the ceiling.

You can see in one of the pics that the space above the cuboards had previously been open - this pic was taken before the room was painted pink and has since been covered with new plaster.

I installed some new studding in the ceiling and walls to give myself something to build off and to make the hole closer to the required dimensions for the new unit.

When I say 'closer' I meant within millimetres of the unit's assembled dimension.

I added some foam insulation to the exterior wall, ensuring I left an opening so as not to block the vent (this is a 1930, non-cavity wall house after all!).

I then installed new plasterboard in the ceiling and walls to create a nice, clean, sqaure finish.

I used a dot and dab technique for the back wall, and used plasterboard/drywall screws for the side wall, ceiling and front edges.

I used scrim tape and jointing compound to cover the joins and screw holes in the plasterboard - I didn't want to plaster the whole area, as it would be covered up, so I relied on the plasterboards near perfect flatness to give a good finish.

This was followed by a light sanding and a PVA and water mix to seal the plasterboard.

I then gave it a couple of coats of white emulsion.

Nothing too intense, as it wouldn't be seen, but I wanted it to be new and clean nevertheless.

Using plasterboard and studding, I was able to make the width of the opening such that it was a VERY* snug fit for the new unit. I used a slightly different approach for the height though, and installed studding that was cut specificially to raise the floor of the opening by the required amount.

It took a bit of trial and error, but eventually, I was able to get the unit to fit almost perfectly.

*I had to chisel away some of the plaster where the top left rear corner of the cabinet would rest and use a block of wood and mallet to 'encourage' the unit in place.

I used a roll of RBG LED tape along the back edges of the top 3 shelves to produce some cool lighting effects.

I enclosed the LED strip in some LED diffusing trunking to give it a nice finish.

The unit does not have a back to it, so I made one using some very thin ply wood, which I painted and screwed to the back of the unit. You can see this in the last couple of images in this section. This helps bounce the light back and also eradicates any gap between the back of the unit and the back wall of the old cupboard space.

With the Ikea unit now snugly in place, and blinged up with RGB LEDs, it needed some finishing touches.

I installed some new skirting and picture rail around the edges of the unit to cover the joins and then used decorators caulk to seal it and cover some of the inevitable gaps.

The room itself recieved a new colour scheme, carpet and blinds to give it a really modern, clean finish.

The 2 old doors were saved and re-used very recently during a loft conversion and garge-to-den conversion, so they haven't gone to waste.