“Ikea hacking…”

 Shared by Breanne Smedley

I had a vision this summer of how I wanted to transform our home office into a cozy, clean, productive workspace.

It came through scrolling multiple Pinterest pages and blog posts with titles like,

“Easy DIY office built-ins for less than $200!”
“How to Ikea hack your office.”

And the kicker that made me think it could all be possible…

“How a (very) novice (female) builder achieved office built-ins for less than $300. And how you can too!”

Sold! How do I do it?

“Apparently all you need are these things,” I told Brett.

Circular saw
Miter saw
Table saw
Dremel Multi-Max 
Hand sander
Hole saw 
Screwdriver
K5 Kreg Jig 
Nail gun 
Paint sprayer 
Caulk gun

Plus some bookcases, cabinets, and plywood.

“…do we have those things?” I asked.

Brett informed me that we don’t even have half the things on that list.

Ok, so buying all those things would cost way more than $300, and take way longer than the 3 nights we had available to work on this.

On to the next plan.

Brett was relieved.

We settled on what would be the “easy” solution of buying Ikea butcher block, desk cabinets, shelves, and a bookcase.

We would put it all together in a way that would create a large workspace with some shelving.

Well, I learned some things.

Did you know that Ikea’s stuff comes to you all unassembled? Like, really unassembled.

Then just gives you instructions with no words, just pictures?

Butcher block is really heavy.

Houses aren’t built perfectly square. What?!

You have to use different screws depending on what type of material you’re screwing into. I feel like I should have known this…

Long story short, Brett and I got it done.

But not without arguing every night about the Ikea directions.

“No, I’m pretty sure the guy in the picture is pointing THIS way!”

Or dropping something on each other.

Or miscommunicating about where things were supposed to go.

The vision was the fun part.

The work was messy, and hard at times.

Turns out there really aren’t many “hacks” when it comes to building things.

Business, body, relationships, marriage, mindsets….Ikea home offices.

There are no shortcuts!

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#MindfullyEvolving

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