Ikea Besta Hack 2.0 - Besta TV Stand

When we rearranged our living room to capitalize on the lake view, we gave up our Besta wall unit.  We had very carefully chosen the modular Besta pieces to fit the townhouse exactly but when we moved to the lakehouse, it worked well here too!  I loved the glass panels behind the TV because they looked like beach glass, and the tower of Besta cabinets (we splurged on glass shelves and doors) showcased my turquoise McCoy pottery collection beautifully.

I was a little sad to see it go.

One day our hulking TV will get mounted above our (magically renovated) fireplace but, for now, we put baby in the corner.  A TV in the corner of the living room is not as weird as I thought!  Really, I barely notice it because the charcoal grey painted fireplace really disguises it.  I have been dreaming about finding a TV cabinet that hides the television and, with the magic of a remote, lifts and reveals the TV only when we're ready to binge watch Orange is the New Black. 

In the meantime, we re-purposed one piece of our old Besta wall unit - with a couple of alterations! Above is how it was looking after the game of musical chairs in the living room.  I think you know where this is going...

Supplies:

• Stubbarp Ikea adjustable Besta legs
• Varathane premium wood stain - weathered grey
• Watco spray lacquer
• Rubber gloves
• 220 grit sandpaper
• 1/2" oak veneer plywood
• Oak pre-glued veneer edge banding
• Construction adhesive

First, I swapped out the legs for a newer version.  When we first bought the cabinets, there weren't many options for adjustable legs, but we picked an okay silver set.  Now, however, Ikea sells a greyed out "walnut".  Here's a look at them (they're actually solid oak with a "walnut effect" and grey stain).



Next, we needed to address the holes on the top and side of the Besta cabinet, left over from when the other pieces were assembled together.  As you can see above, we decided to do exactly what we did to our DIY Ikea Fauxdenza Hack - slap on some plywood! 

We couldn't find the same Carribean Pine I chose for the credenza top, so we bought some oak instead.  I really wanted walnut veneer (like what we used for our DIY Walnut Storage Bins) but a 1/2" thick walnut veneered plywood was really expensive.  I want to say around $150?  That's too good for an Ikea TV stand!  We chose the least expensive option (without dropping down to the construction-grade plywood you find at home building place, like Home Depot): basic oak.  But I spent a good 40 minutes picking out the sheet with the best grain, and I'm really happy with my choice! 

For the floating credenza, I had a grey stain custom-mixed at a local paint shop.  I've had folks ask me about the color, but I have no way to help readers replicate it, so for this project I decided to try a ready-made grey stain.  I turned to my friends at Rust-Oleum, who sent me Varathane Premium Wood Stain in weathered grey, which is a really nice grey.

With stain, you can really control the intensity.  One coat of weathered grey still looks warm with beige undertones (like my credenza), but after two and three coats, it becomes a lot cooler and richer.  It's a beautiful shade of grey, with blue undertones.  On my stir stick, you can just how different one coat vs. seven coats looks:

Of course stain will look different on different species of wood, but on my oak veneer plywood, it looks SO similar to the sample on the can (pictured on red oak).

After the stain was dry, I applied four coats of Watco Spray Lacquer - which is SO easy to use!  I lightly sanded between coats two and three.  Other than that, I just sprayed it on lightly in a well ventilated area - no brushing, no streaks.  It even smells good.  This might be my new favorite product.

 
Installation went exactly like the credenza hack: after cutting, edge banding and staining the plywood, we applied construction adhesive to the Besta unit, applying the sides first and then the top.  I held the panels in place while Hubby affixed some screws from the inside to help grab the panels while the adhesive dried.  A few clamps helped keep things flat and - voila! 

A freshened up Ikea Besta hack for our corner TV:

It's a subtle change, but it makes the Ikea Besta unit look a little more finished - plus it hides those screw holes, allowing us to re-purpose this piece and save some $$$ while we drain our bank accounts on sailing stuff. 

There was only one snag with this project (which makes me SO happy we didn't splurge on the walnut):  because we have yet to buy a table saw, we often make do with a skill saw and a straight edge but, for projects like this, we either use someone else's table saw or get the guys at Windsor Plywood to cut it for us (that's where we buy a lot of our supplies).  They cut the Ikea credenza perfectly, but we were less than impressed this time.  A dull blade created some tear out and it wasn't until we'd applied the construction adhesive (at midnight) and were about to affix the top that we noticed the top was cut too long.  Oops.  We double checked the measurements and we didn't make the mistake, but it IS our fault for not dry-fitting first.  We were over confident - and over tired - but we decided to keep going.  We would have had to scrape off the construction adhesive, drive to Hubby's Dad, trim the tiniest bit off, re-glue the edge band and touch up the stain.  Did I mention it was midnight?  We were kind of in a "just get it done" mood and, you know what?  It is barely noticeable.  If this was a permanent, love-it-forever kind of furniture, I would have taken the time to make it right.  But eventually (sooner, rather than later, I hope) we're going to replace this for something nicer and, hopefully, jettison the corner cabinet altogether one day.  This little mistake isn't really noticeable and I'm just happy the big ugly holes are covered up. 

But there's a lesson in there: always double check and dry fit first!

P.S. I had to share this last photo!  I was listening to music on the TV while I was working and I snapped this photo just as Coleman Hell was on - he's originally from my city.  So thrilled to see people from Thunder Bay making it big!

How to Turn Three Ikea Besta Cabinets into a Floating Credenza

The lakehouse dining room nook is about seven feet wide, which is why we sold our incredibly wee four foot long teak cabinet from the townhouse dining room.  During the fall I casually kept my eye out for a larger mid-century credenza (either teak or walnut) but I had a serious Goldilocks problem on my hands: everything I found was too short, too long, too beat-up, too pricey, too far away.  Sigh.  One day we might make something for the spot (Handy Hubby's Dad is a woodworker, after all), but in the meantime I decided to find a quick & easy placeholder.

After much waffling, we opted for three wall mounted Ikea Besta units (the same kind we use for television storage in the living room), with glass front doors that have a white backing.  I splurged on the glass doors because they look a little beach-glassy to me (with the faintest grey-blue tinge).  They are similar, but not identical, to the glass backdrop behind the television, which is equally luminescent but more of a minty hue.  The new ceiling fan also has a similar glossiness, but it's much greyer.  Can you tell I'm kind of into anything with some glassy glow?  In case I get bored of the look, there are other options.  I can put a fun fabric behind the glass, or I could even paint the glass itself - painted glass turned out so beautifully with the amazing mirror Sarah made from an 80s glass chandelier.

Hanging them was simple because Ikea sells Besta suspension rail kits!

One problem: there is an outlet immediately behind the wall mounted Besta and the only other one is to the right.  This means the cord for the lamp on the left needs to run along the credenza.  Messy!  Not to worry, we're going to be building a wood top for the credenza, stained pale grey, to finish off the look and hide the Ikea-ness of it (most notably the seams between the three units).  At that time we'll drill some holes in the top and run the cords down into the unit, to access the outlet hiding behind.  I am unbelievably excited about the prospect of totally hidden lamp cords. 

I've known all along that Hubby's grandpa's painting, which hung in the townhouse dining room, would also look good here.  It's the perfect scale for the nook.  I topped the credenza with the milky, glossy lamps from the townhouse office and I love how they pair with the glass doors.

As a reminder, here's how the nook looked when we first toured the home (it had furniture in the listing photos, but was emptier for the house inspection):




And here's the nook now (good-bye taupe walls and oak trim):



UPDATE: We finished the floating credenza!  See how we made a plywood top by reading this post and also take a look at how we finished the piece using furniture grommets - I love those hidden lamp cords!

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