DIY Vanity IKEA hack

I've always liked make up. Ever since my teen years I have always had some of it. But I barely used it. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I preferred to sleep those extra 15-20 mins or maybe I didn't care I wasn't like the popular girls or maybe I didn't know how to (internet and youtube access was very limited those days. They were restricted for educational purposes only. Yay 90s and early 2000s!!). Anyways, the point is that I have never had my own vanity, a place to sit and have fun applying makeup. I always used either my dresser and mirror or the bathroom countertop. Well, I told my husband I wanted a vanity so I could store my makeup collection (that has grown in the last months). We had the space in the room, we just needed to go shopping. I looked at some on Amazon, Target, Walmart, Big Lots and I didn't quite like them. They were either too old looking, bulky or didn't have enough space. So I decided to DIY it. I turned to Pinterest and found some nice ideas. My heart was set on the Alex shelf by IKEA, that combined with an Alex drawers system would be enough. Well, when we saw it at IKEA, it was too long!! It wouldn't fit in the space I wanted it. But we couldn't just leave the store. It is a long drive from home (3.5 hours) to the nearest IKEA. We needed to improvise and look for something else. I remembered we had a wall-mounted drop-leaf table (Norberg) in the laundry room and honestly was barely being used.

Also, since I wanted some drawers attached to the shelf, these drawers (IVAR) that can be attached to almost any table, were an option I liked:

Once back home, my husband removed the table from the wall and I told him I didn't quite like the drop leaf thing of the table and asked him to remove it. This meant we would need to trace where the screws would be in the big leaf:

My husband then proceeded to screw it all in place and attach the drawers rails.

I marked the level where I wanted the shelf to be and my husband drilled on the wall to place the wall anchors

He then mounted the shelf on the wall and forgot the support bar in the garage. I love this support system. So reliable 🤣

Here he is measuring the distance between the screws holes of the mirror (Nissedal - IKEA)

Then, it was time to mount the small shelves next to the mirror (Looking like a vanity at this point!!!)

We also got a light strip at IKEA (Ledberg) to put around the mirror.

The original idea was to put it around the mirror (on the wall) but space got too tight and we decided to put it on the front side of the mirror frame, which works even better to me!

This is how it finally looks!!

I know this might have seen like a lot of work. But it's so worth it! If you decide to DIY, you can customize it to your likes and needs That's the beauty of DYI'ing and the IKEA hacks

IKEA shopping list:

Norberg drop-leaf table

Ivar drawers (2)

Lack shelves (4)

Nissedal mirror

Ledberg light strip (1)

Molte desk chair

留言