Ikea Hack: Magazine Rack Before and After
Updated on June 25, 2021
Well yes, the idea behind furniture makeovers is one of the best concepts our globally connected world has lost in the last years, that’s the ability of repurposing something that isn’t in its best form (yet). It happens that you earn various things from friend’s relocations, mostly objects that are still working but not as cute and modern looking as we wished. Most commonly things like this get trashed and pile up in giant unhealthy landfill. Let’s use our creativity to slow this never-ending loop called consumerism! It happens that old IKEA models populate our houses awaiting to be spruced up a little, and believe me when I say efforts can be really small to make a big difference.
Today we’re discovering how to hack a metallic magazine rack, which was one of Ikea’s most popular items something around 5-6 years ago: it’s the Spontan Magazine Rack, a $9,99 wall piece with a look something in between a 90’s postal office furniture and a very on a budget home decor of the 2000’s. With two little DIY tricks, the before and after are pretty much astounding:
Materials:
- Spontan Magazine holder
- white spray paint
- brown faux leather
- sewing machine
- scissors
- cream thread
- hot glue and gun
1. Start by spray painting the whole magazine rack. To cover up evenly it took me 3 layers of thick white color, letting dry at least 2 hours between each layer.
2. While your layers of paint get dry, you can prepare the leather stripes: cut 3 rectangles of about 29cm length and 10cm width.
3. This step is optional, but it really adds that extra touch. Before you go ahead, check that your sewing machine can actually sew leather, try it on a scrap piece and see what happens: not all sewing machines are leather friendly. With your sewing machine make some fake seams on each side of the leather, making it look like a premium leather good. If your sewing machine permits it, select a zigzag pattern and use medium thread tension. If you can’t, just use a normal seam but make the sew length slightly longer than you’d do for your usual seams.
4. Finally, hot glue the faux leather to the magazine rack like shown in the picture.
Now that’s what I call a great makeover! The faux leather gives it and overall premium look, with the illusion of adding a soft padded surface for your magazines to lean on, and well, white is always white, what can one say! Do you like the combination? Remember to pair the leather’s color to some hues already in your home decor, like curtains, couches or even only a few cushions, for a perfect and stylish integration.
