Why You Should Rethink Hacking Your Ikea Kitchen Furniture

If you're big on kitchen customization, you've probably already been introduced to the wonderful world of Ikea hacking. The idea is that Ikea sells pretty affordable furniture, so customizing it for aesthetics or added functionality is a low-risk, high-reward project. It can also help you maximize limited space by allowing you to craft a hybrid kitchen setup. But before splurging on Ikea kitchen cabinets with the intent of hacking them, there are a few things that might make you want to reconsider.

First, the additional costs of hacking Ikea kitchen furniture might make the whole project more expensive than you think. The prices of parts and materials can add up, and that's on top of the opportunity costs incurred by spending several hours of your time on the hack. That time investment can also vary widely depending on your skill level. Not all of us are professionals, so a hack that takes a seasoned DIYer a couple of days might still end up unfinished on your end after a couple of months. Mistakes or do-overs will end up costing you more, and the odds of that happening are directly proportional to how handy you are with tools. 

Additionally, kitchen furniture takes a lot of beating with all the heat, moisture, and activity going on around it. If you don't know your way around making furniture more durable, your hack might not last as long as you'd like. Sometimes, the more sensible option is to just whip out your credit card and buy something you can be 100% sure of.

If you're hacking your Ikea furniture to save on costs, you might want to consider repurposing pieces you already have at home instead. You could, for instance, make a pantry out of older furniture that'd otherwise just be collecting dust. The cost of refurbishing things would probably be around the same as any customizations you might make on an Ikea piece, but you won't have to spend on something brand-new to begin with.

You could also dig around garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores if your own basement is fresh out of un-fresh furniture. With a little creativity, you can turn some really cheap, outdated pieces into kitchen storage solutions. Upcycling obsolete furniture like a CD tower or a broken wine rack into something like an herb planter isn't just going to save you money; it's great for the environment, too. By finding new uses for old items, you're effectively prolonging their lifespan and reducing waste — all while sprucing up your kitchen in the process.

Another approach you could take is to flip things around and hack your existing kitchen furniture using inexpensive Ikea products. You could, for example, upgrade your kitchen drawers using MOSSLANDA picture ledges for less than $10 a pop, giving you much more flexibility in how you organize things. If the measurements line up just right, you could use a BILLY height extension unit and a bit of DIY-ing to add an extra storage option to your kitchen cabinet. With a little bit of imagination, you can turn all sorts of smaller Ikea products into upgrades for kitchen furniture you've already got.