So for a few years now I’ve been wanting to do a built-in IKEA hack using Billy Bookcases.
Coincidentally, my uncle gave me three regular sized birch veneer Billy Bookcases, which fit in my dining room almost perfectly (more on that later). After having the wood look in the dining room for awhile, I decided I wanted them to look less like furniture and more like built-ins, so I decided to paint them white!
The first thing I did was to add three Billy Height Extension Units to the top. For about 5 minutes I considered buying white extension units – I mean, I was going to paint them anyway – but I decided to go with the matching birch. I had a bad feeling that the white veneer would interact differently with the primer and paint than the birch veneer.
Painting & Priming
I primed and painted all three shelves in one weekend. The most important part of this step is to PRIME! You absolutely cannot skip this step. The veneer does NOT take regular paint well. It essentially sits on top of the veneer in little tiny paint droplets. I have always used Kilz primer but any oil-based primer will do.
Without going into too much detail, I did two coats of Kilz and one final coat of Sherwin Williams Pure White (this was already the color of my trim). It took one full weekend/two days total to get the cases completely painted. I’d say the hardest part was the logistics of painting the shelves and drying between coats. There is no right or wrong way to do this but here’s what I did:
I started by laying all the shelves outside on a tarp and did the first coat on those, then went back inside and did the first coat on the actual cases. After I got through the cases, the shelves were dry enough to flip and do the first coat on the other sides. Repeat this step again with another coat of the primer and a coat of white paint (I separated the paint into Day 2).
Take note: Kilz, because it’s oil-based, is incredibly hard to clean. I tossed my cheap paintbrush, roller cover and plastic tray at the end of Day 1 because it wasn’t worth cleaning (you CAN clean it with mineral spirits but personally I have no patience). Because of this, I planned to do all of the primer in one day in order to “save” my supplies.
After everything was dry, I was able to put the shelves back in. I let it dry longer overnight before loading up the shelves with books.
Coming Soon:
I need to figure out what to do with the odd 4-inch gap on the left near the window. Hopefully some curtains will do the trick. I also need to lie on the floor and paint the bases. You can see I tried to paint one – what you can’t see is all the paint that got all over the floor. I’ve been putting that off because I’d like to eventually frame out the bookcases with moulding to look more like carpentry, and if I’m going to end up covering the bottom anyway, I’m not going to paint them. I’m also currently debating adding these IKEA doors to the bottoms. But for now, I’m enjoying how much a few coats of paint have brightened this room up!
