IKEA Hack: IVAR Home Office Shelves

Hello! And welcome to Landeelu.com! I’m so glad you’re here. Today I’m sharing a bit more about my home office that I am putting together. This space used to be our almost completely unused dining room. I claimed it as my own and have slowly but surely been putting it all together! I needed to have a LOT of storage in this area as it would also double as a craft room so I wanted some wall-to-wall shelving. Well, wouldn’t you know, an IKEA hack was the perfect solution!

I guess I could have had someone come in and build some custom built ins, but that would have been thousands of dollars! I also could have bought some pre-fab book shelves and made something work but I didn’t want anything to be too visually heavy or hard to change out later (sometimes I’m a bit fickle). So when I came across these IKEA IVAR shelves I knew I could make them into exactly what I needed. All they needed was a little paint and some pretty styling!

I believe these IVAR shelves are meant to be quite utilitarian. No fuss. All function. But, unlike a lot of IKEA products, they are solid pine. That very much appealed to me. That meant I could paint them, drill into them (if needed) and basically do whatever I wanted to do with them. They also come in a lot of different sizes which meant that I could configure them as needed for my space as well.

Luckily, 4 sets of shelves across fit perfectly! So I got 16 shelves (they are almost 20″ deep—yes!), 5 uprights (I got the 49″ tall ones but they have taller!) and 4 sets of the criss-cross support bars for the back. Grand total for over 11 linear feet of shelving? $220. Two. Hundred. And. Twenty. Two. Dollars. Amazing!

I got some Benjamin Moore Simply White paint for the shelves and I made pretty quick work of painting it by using my awesome HomeRight paint sprayer.

I made this video to send to my sister. We had just painted all of her kitchen cabinets BY HAND which is why I say what I do at the beginning. Ha! But seriously such an awesome, every day, paint sprayer! And super affordable too. You can get one for yourself here (affiliate link): HomeRight Paint Sprayer

And then I used Rustoleum Metallic Gold (affiliate link) spray paint on the uprights and the support bars that criss-cross in the back.

I just love how it all came together! Light and airy but definitely functional for all of the storage that I need for my new home office. I had a great time searching for pretty storage bins and styling my shelves! And I’m guessing I will always be tinkering and rearranging them as my needs change.

IKEA HACK: Home Office Shelving

I now need to decide what kind of decor I want to hang above the shelves. A grid of picture frames? A fun, whimsical gallery wall? Three large pieces of art? I can’t decide! If you have an opinion let me know!

Here are some other projects I have completed in my home office already. I love working in this space now!