Updating Ikea Desk

We have a problem…it starts with a very little person who can get into everything in our desk. We were really tired of our desk looking like this: Not all of that was the little guys fault, I think I need to clean the top…

Do you see any problems with this picture? The cords are all piled on the floor with a chair/backpack trying to keep someone out. The side and front of the desk are all open and that does not work very well with a baby either. See the wiring on the one front? Or how about the tub, empty box, or toys closing in all the other sides? I think you get the point that this desk needs a makeover. But I want to show you the after because it’s AMAZING!!!

BAM… That’s the same desk… Can you believe it??? Do you want to see how we did it? Well first we had to clean and move everything off the desk. Here is my little helper…

We decided to close in one of the sides and to add a door to the other side. Plus, of course, adding doors to the front. I really wanted to make one of the bottoms bigger and add a printer slider like this:

source

It’s amazing right! But we decided not this time… But here is the base of the desk all updated and our new doors. All ready for some primer and paint.

We decided to stain the desk top in Special Walnut, my new favorite stain… But something new I have been doing is taking a damp cloth and wiping all the wood.

Then applying the stain right after. I have found this does a really good job as a wood conditioner and it’s FREE.

Then we added the utility hinges, pulls, and knobs.

We wanted the cords hidden in the desk base. So we drilled a hole through the back of the base and attached the power strip to the wood. No more seeing that all the time…

I still have to hide some cords but does that not look amazing?

Loving the clean crisp desk now.

We have had this IKEA desk for 7 years and through 3 kids. And I have no idea why we did not do this sooner… Because this IKEA hack is great! Anyone else need to hack their Ikea desk? Or just need to give their desk a much needed makeover?

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