Today I am going to show you my favorite IKEA hack I have ever done, it is a super easy media console. It will be going in the same room where I did my stenciled accent wall. If you are a consumer of DIY social media I would bet you’ve seen ads for the furniture brand Article. They have really beautiful furniture but they aren’t quite in my price range just yet!
I was going to start saving ,but I’m a millennial for better or worse. I like instant gratification. With the help of an Ikea media console I was able to get closer to the original design than I thought I’d be able to.
What you’re going to need
Two packs of IKEA NANNARP legs
Hardwood plywood (I purchase mine from The Home Depot online)
Gorilla glue that works on metal
Screws
Building the Ikea base
First up. Build the BYAS media console. Skip building the base of the unit and attaching drawer fronts. Building the base is the first part of the instructions, definitely make sure you skip this part. I didn’t realize when I started and attached this to the unit and it was a total pain to remove. So learn from my mistake! Make sure to keep the drawer fronts, you’ll need these later to use as a template.
Attaching the legs
I used legs from Ikea called Nannarp. Two come in a pack so I bought two packs. To fasten them I used Gorilla Glue that said it would adhere to metal. I really wasn’t sure the glue would work so I also bought some 1/4in screws just incase.
As it turns out after following the instructions on the Gorilla Glue the legs were stuck and didn’t feel like they were going anywhere. To err on the side of caution I also used the screws I bought to secure the legs.
A little bit of troubleshooting
It took me awhile to finish this project. The drawer fronts really held me back, so the console was just sitting half finished in my den with my TV on it. After a while I noticed that the center of the media console was bowing a little. I’m not sure if this was how it was to start out, but here’s a quick fix. I took a 2×2 and cut them down to fit snuggly under the console. Call me lazy, but I didn’t glue or screw them even. I just shoved four under and called it good. So far after several months it’s held with no problem.
Ordering your wood
Meanwhile while you are building the Ikea media console, go on to Home Depot’s website and order your hardwood plywood. Originally I wanted to find some reclaimed wood to use as drawer front but I couldn’t find anything that was working. Hardwood plywood, is basically a cheaper piece of wood with a veener of hardwood over it, so you get the look but not the cost. I ordered the white oak ½ in thick 2 feet by 8 feet. The best part is you can have the wood cut wood down to the exact size you need. I measured my drawer fronts and shelf and had the wood cut to those dimensions
If there is going to be enough wood left have an extra piece cut to the drawer front dimensions in case you mess up. I had not totally thought through all of my cuts and only got 2 cut to drawer front size so I had to cut a new piece myself, and unfortunately it’s slightly lopsided. Hopefully no one will look that closely!
Building the drawer fronts
Okay! Your wood has now arrived from Home Depot. Here’s where things get serious. Use the drawer front that came with the ikea piece and copy the markings onto your piece of hardwood as exactly as you can. This is definitely a measure 5 times and then one more time, cut/drill once scenario. Once all of the marks match the drawer, you’ll want to drill pilot holes where screws are going to go into. I suggest marking your drill with a piece of tape so you don’t accident drill through your piece of wood. I had even taken a small piece to practice on and still made this mistake. After that I did the tape trick and things went more smoothly. During this step refer back to the directions for building the Ikea media console.
After you drill the holes is the trickiest part. There is a little groove that needs to be cut into the wood for the drawer bottom to sit in. I used a router to do this. If you don’t have a router, you could use a chisel. I almost went the chisel route but lucky for me I had a router my dad gave me that I had never tried. At first I was SUPER skeptical about using the router, it’s such a weird tool. I still don’t quite understand why it’s round. After a trip to my local Ace Hardware, a super nice dad type worker helped me find the bit I needed. He also told me not to be scared of the router I could totally do this, but to be careful. Thanks, sir! All pepped up from the Ace employees Pep talk ,I went home and tried out the router.
Per the friendly Ace employees suggestion I clamped a piece of wood down to the piece of wood I was using the router on and used it as a guide to get a straight line. I had some scrap wood of the actual wood I was using so I practiced with that first.
Finishing Touches
For the finishing touches I used a piece of the hardwood plywood that I had cut to size and put it in to replace the white shelf of the original console. The original piece had grooves in the shelf “clicked” into small brackets. Instead of messing with making these grooves onto my piece of plywood I just flipped the brackets over and the piece sits on top of it.
I almost didn’t add the knobs I had purchased from amazon because I was already so in love with the piece. I’m glad I went for it right away because they just really made the media console look finished.
In retrospect this project was much easier than I thought it would be. I dragged my feet because I was nervous to use new tools and new materials. I’m glad I gave it a go though! I have some new routing skills, which will come in handy for sure in the future. AND if I do say so myself I achieved a pretty close look for half the price. Sometimes I’m all for buying the real deal, but I’m super pleased with how this turned out.
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
