🖼️
The project:
I needed a home office setup that was hidden in a cupboard and to be part of my small apartment decor/style.
- Materials:
- Bunnings: Hinges, handles, timber, storage box, paint, primer, cord management
- Ikea: Besta Cabinet + Hanviken Doors, Shelf 36cm and 16cm deep (in both white and glass).
- Amazon: Dropdown drawer slides
- Temple and Webster: Chair
- Tools:
All the standard stuff! drill, painting supplies, drill bits for the holes etc.
- Step 1:
Planning/Design. Looking back I actually thought this was going to be easy! but like many of my DIY attempts there is always more work than you realise. The first step was actually one of the hardest and that was the design. I was limited on space and where it I could build it in my apartment and how. I wanted to ensure it matched with my decor and I didn't want to be looking at the laptop and screen and what on earth do I do for a chair?. After much analysing I decided to move ahead with out solving the chair issue and just get the office part done. I realised adding on to my entertainment unit under the TV was the best solution - so off to Ikea for the Besta Cabinets and Doors.
- Step 2:
Preparation - I had to remove part of the skirting board so the unit would sit flush against the wall and inline with the current entertainment unit. I also forgot I had painted the original unit years ago because Ikea furniture is not actually 'white'. I had paint left over from my kitchen update last year, including the special primer needed to paint this type of furniture. After many coats it was ready.
Once installed I started to work through the issues with the door opening which the Ikea hinges didn't open far enough so I bought the 165 degree hinges from Bunnings. Best part is that they are clip on so if I am working for the whole day then I can actually remove the doors and put them to the side so I don't keep walking around them.
- Step 3:
Power. Next step is work through how to get power to the unit, once I drilled out the hole in the base of the unit, the power board had a very long lead, so I was able to feed it under the whole entertainment unit and up through another hole in the middle cabinet under the TV. I had done all this before I realised I had forgotten the hole 'grommet' it was far too much work to pull everything and redo so a friend who has a 3D printer made me a grommet that was spilt down the side so could wrap it around the power cord - in bright green for fun!. Cord management was next - I had found the storage box at bunnings, which had a hole in the lid and allowed me to feed the cords through the top, plug into the power board inside the box, which then feed through the side. The box sits on one of the Besta cabinet shelves - so away from my feet. I also use the cable ties to pull all of the cables together. These shelves from Ikea have two types of brackets so by using the ones that make the shelf sit forward I was able to feed all the cables down behind.
- Step 4:
Keyboard shelf pull out. This took me a while to resolve, due to where it was position height wise I had to take the right hand hinge into account. I found drawer slides that I could screw in through the top instead of the side as most slides do. Unfortuantley due to the width i was limited by how much room i would end up with an only just managed to fit the keyboard - I could have gone for a smaller keyboard but i needed on with the number pad on the righthand side. This means using the mouse is a little annoying, however, i now find that once the doors are removed as mentioned above, I'm able to move the keboard over and have the mouse on the left.
Chair. Finding an 'office chair' i knew was going to be a pain point, I managed to find a small one (like you see in a nail salon) that fits into my utility cupboard. While not comfortable to use for hours everyday, it certainly is for the odd time I work from home.
- Step 5:
The final look. Overall, the cupboard has turned out well, as an extension to my current Ikea unit, only issue is the Besta range doesn't have 1 large door so its broken into two.
