15 Seriously Genius IKEA Billy Bookcase Hacks

Hide Your Billys Behind Doors

There's putting doors on a Billy bookcase, and then there's putting doors in front of a Billy bookcase. Alice Gaskell of Alice Grace Interiors primed and painted five bookcases in Neptune Dove Grey before attaching them to her walls. She used a timber frame around them and added MDF doors, paneling, brass pulls, and moulding.

It's not a quick and easy hack, but it results in beautiful and relatively affordable built-in cabinetry.

“Our Billy bookcase hack has been one of the best decisions in our house," Gaskell says. "It has completely transformed the look and use of this wall.”

Play With Height and Width

Eunice Choi created an aesthetic gem of a storage and display space by lining up the 15-inch cases side by side. Shelves were removed to accommodate tall items, like her zz plant, but for the most part all the shelves are at the same height, letting the objects on them really shine.

Choi also turned around the books she's not reading to create more neutral moments to contrast with the colorful areas.

Chic Glass Cabinet

Erika from Peony and Honey took inspiration from Erin Conway and hacked her Billy Oxberg bookcase into a sleek cabinet.

First she put on a few coats of Behr Chalk Spray Paint in Miniature Rose. (Erika says you don't have to sand or prime because the textured paint sticks well to IKEA furniture.) She painted long, narrow dowels the same shade, then cut them to fit in the lower panels of the Oxberg doors and glued them in place with Loctite clear instant grab glue.

A jigsaw helped her make the two half-arch pieces that she painted the same shade as the rest of the cabinet and glued into place on top of the glass. The easiest and final swap was the hardware, changed to acrylic and brass pulls.

“Having a small home means we don’t have the luxury of fashion-only pieces,” Erika says. “They all have to serve a function."

Go Sleek and Symmetrical

You can get glass-front cabinets without having to spend big bucks. Ada of Nest No. 17 adjusted all the shelves to be the same height before adding glass doors with glass panes and leather pulls.

Set Up an Open Pantry

The Billy bookcase doesn't just have to have a role in the living room. It works perfectly as a pantry, as proven by frequent baker Kellie Malberg. She paired two Billy bookcases, with a matching baseboard at the bottom and extra shelves on top, with another cabinet (used as a coffee bar) to function as an open butler's pantry.

“It felt like a crime to hide all of these pretty dishes in a cabinet, so I wanted to find a practical way to display them,” Malberg says.

Try a High-End Makeover

Painted black and filled with gorgeous décor pieces, Katie Rode's Billy bookcase couldn't look more high-end if she tried.

Rode and her husband added legs to the bottom, primed and painted, and attached beadboard to the back. Custom glass panes and hardware finished the look.

“By transforming this Billy, we saved ourselves hundreds of dollars,” Rode says. “It’s amazing how pieces of furniture can make a house feel more like a cozy home, and that’s just what this Billy bookcase did for us.”

Wall-to-Wall Built-In Illusion

Go bold with your Billy bookcases and their color. Sarah Unsworth used seven Billy bookcases with Oxberg doors and put them wall to wall in her living room. Plinths on the bottom and moulding at the top helped get them closer to her high Victorian ceilings and gave them a more traditional look.

If you look closely, you'll see the back of the shelves are a different color. That's because she left off the back panels to let the wall color peak through. The final touch: vintage-style handles draped with tassels.

Create Mega Shoe Storage

Lucy Young wanted the kind of shoe closet that would make people jealous, so she turned to the Billy bookcases. With an extension unit on top and a bunch of extra shelves, she made a shoe and handbag storage space.

“The Billy bookcases are the perfect depth for this space and two together side by side fit just right into the space,” Young says. “It provided us with a cost-effective, fully customizable shoe storage system without having the permanence of built-in cupboards."

Add Handles and a Trim

Even simple changes can elevate a Billy bookcase. Beth Laird upgraded hers by adding a trim at the top and handles to the cabinet doors (a Billy bookcase with doors on the lower half is sold as the Billy/Oxberg).

“I love how much more upscale the bookcase looks now,” Laird says. The upper shelves are perfect for her plants, and the lower half conceals a TV.

Build a Mini Library

Possibly the most well-known trick with Billy bookcases is to make them look like built-in cabinetry. With two side-by-side Billy bookcases and some framing, all painted Sherwin-Williams Secret Garden, Amy Bennett of Abigail Amira Home created a mini built-in library for her reading nook.

“Now I spend lots of time in this little reading nook I created in less than a weekend,” Bennett says.

Push Three Bookcases Together

Even if you don't want to do any work that involves power tools, you can still set up the Billy bookcases to look amazing. Helsinki-based Annukka pushed three together and arranged the shelves at various heights—it almost looks like a custom gallery for her décor pieces.

Blend Your Billys With Your Wall Color

Push the Billybookcases back into a recessed area and then paint them the same color of your walls and they'll immediately look like built-ins, like in Heather Rosie Olive’s home. Choose a color that complements your décor, the same way this dusty blue—Barking Creek by Valspar—works so well with the pastel accents and rainbow books.

Make a Corner Bookcase

Corner shelving is possible, even without buying a corner bookcase, as Rasa T-Brasiene proved. Get yourself one full-sized Billy bookcase and two half-sizes, and push them together. The natural wood coloring makes them look elevated and helps them match the rest of the décor in the space while making the ceramic pieces on the shelves really pop.

Built-In Bookcase on a Budget

Kellie Fundenberger’s Billy bookcase hack is the kind of built-in creation you'd expect in a mansion. Fundenberger used melamine caps in between the bookcases and moulding on top to give it a more traditional look. At the top of the bookcases, she was able to add a rail and sliding ladder on wheels.

“Growing up, I'd always dreamed of a rolling ladder, so this was a dream fulfilled for me,” Fundenberger says.

Create Colorful Storage

Yes, the scalloped cupboard above really does have a base of Billy bookcases. “I wanted them to be simple and look like a piece of built-in furniture,” says Lara Bezzina.

To top of each rounded door extends 8 inches above the bookcase. To get that curve, she used a pencil and string and drew semi circles (a great trick for any scalloped edge). Her brother assisted by using a jigsaw to cut the curve, and then the doors were attached with soft-close hinges.

That shade of orangey-pink? Orange Aurora by Little Greene Paint Company.