Add personality, charm, and function to your home by building your own furniture. Sound like a labor of love? It certainly can be, but it doesn’t have to be a tedious, time-consuming, or expensive endeavor! And, you don’t necessarily need expensive power tools or woodworking skills to get the job done. Use the hacks below to build new furniture quickly.

  1. Repurpose an old crib into a child’s desk. Let’s face it, babies quickly outgrow their cribs. Rather than dragging a cherished crib to the sidewalk or posting it on your neighborhood’s classified ads site, repurpose it. The Little Learning for Two blog has detailed instructions for converting an old crib into a child’s desk. In a nutshell, this project involves removing the crib’s drop side, adjusting the height of its base, adding a board painted with blackboard paint, adding a toddler chair, and accessorizing it. End result: an adorable and functional toddler’s desk.
  2. Turn two Ikea RAST 3-drawer chests into an adult’s desk. Not to be outdone, this hack from BuzzFeed is a fast way to make a desk for grownups. Start with two 3-drawer RAST chests from Ikea (they’re about $35 each if buying new). These chests are the perfect height (27 ½ inches) and width(24 ⅜ inches) for a desk. Position them with their drawers facing outward on each side and top with a standard interior door or countertop
  3. Turn an Ikea shelving unit into a storage bench. Who doesn’t need more storage, or seating space for that matter? With this hack from Mommy Vignettes, you simply take a vertical Ikea shelving unit, such as the Ikea KALLAX, turn it on its side, attach four to six legs with screws, and add a “no sew” fabric and foam cushion to the top. You can optionally place pretty baskets or storage containers inside the open shelves. This makes for a fast and easy window seat that doubles as a storage unit.
  4. Build your own shoe closet. Tatiana’s Delights turned an Ikea Billy Bookcase into an amazing shoe closet — and so can you. You’ll also need a couple of Billy Olsbo doors, some decorative door knobs, and glass Billy shelves to pull this one off. If you want to get extra fancy, you can even add lights. This hack is a fast way to build a shoe closet that both stores and showcases your footwear.
  5. Quickly swap out glass doors for decorative ones. Not loving clear glass cabinet or wardrobe doors? We get it! Sometimes we want to stash our stuff so that it remains unseen. While you could replace the doors, we like this quick hack from the folks over at YoungHouseLove.com: use wrapping paper. Simply take a roll of pretty wrapping paper, trim it to size and use double-stick tape or staples to attach it to the inside of your glass doors (with the pattern facing out). It’s a fast and pretty solution that can be changed with the seasons or your mood.

Need help with your next move? Reach out to the experts at Connecticut’s Finest Movers.