How To Make An IKEA Spice Rack Bookshelf That’s Brilliant For Kid’s Books

July 2, 2014

How To Make An IKEA Spice Rack Bookshelf

Want to make some simple bookshelves for children rooms, using a quick and easy IKEA hack? Here’s how to make  IKEA spice rack bookshelves made using IKEA Bekvam Spice racks.

IKEA Spice Rack Shelves: An IKEA Bekvam Hack To Make DIY Kid’s Bookshelves

Here are the bedside bookshelves in our toddler’s room, which are painted Ikea Bekvam spice racks. It’s a very simple IKEA hack – where people take the furniture and use it for something else – but a really good one that means you can store and display kid’s books.

IKEA spice rack bookshelves - IKEA Bekvam hacks for children's rooms

Firstly, How Much Do IKEA Spice Racks Cost?

  • The IKEA Bekvam shelves cost around £3.50
  • They are sold in single units (our are displayed in a set of two)

Where Can I Buy An IKEA Spice Rack?

  • Head on over to IKEA
  • But if you can’t go to a store, you can buy them here and here (affiliate links).

Why Use An IKEA Spice Rack As A Bookshelf?

  • IKEA Spice Racks are designed to be used in kitchens to hold spices
  • BUT – they also work brilliantly as IKEA Spice Rack bookshelf due to the wide shelf and wooden barrier which stops books falling off
  • IKEA Spice racks are are great to use as kid’s bookshelves as they store books with the cover out, meaning kids can easily see the book they want to read. And they look pretty.

How To Make An IKEA Spice Rack Bookshelf:

  • First, assemble the shelf as per the instructions (which is a simple process that shouldn’t take too long).
  • The IKEA spice rack comes in pale, unfinished wood. If you want, you can leave them as they are
  • HOWEVER! They also look great painted. We painted ours as we wanted them to be more colourful.
  • We used two coats of teal wood paint
  • Next, decide where they are best placed – space them out accordingly to fit children’s board books, which are taller.
  • Attach them to the wall – they need to be screwed into the wall and it’s quite fiddly.

IKEA spice rack bookshelves

The IKEA spice rack bookshelves / spice racks work really well as bookshelves for children’s rooms, as they’re deep enough to keep lots of books on, and small enough so you can slot them in to make a cosy reading corner.

We used ours here. right by her bed, so we can read books to her pre-sleep.

As they are by her bed, they also surprisingly useful for housing various objects including her evening water cup and whichever mini toy is the current favourite.

I have a whole load of ideas of IKEA hacks for children over on my Pinterest board.

You can also read my IKEA malm drawers upcycle.

More Kid’s Room Painting Projects:

We’ve been doing lots of work on the house recently. It’s not so much because we have a baby deadline now, but I’m so sick of it not being done. I do think it’s probably extreme nesting on a three-storey scale.

So there’s been more paint in Eliza’s room, where  the only useful build-in cupboards in the house that we’ve left up – out of many – were the boxed-in shelves above her bed, so we (Alex) painted those bright green. I can’t take any credit for it as it was all his idea.

Bright paint in children's rooms

We all loved the colour so much we used it on her door as well, which previously had a terribly streaky whitewash.Painted doors

Breaking news, we also painted our awful red fireplace (it looks a million times better, will post a photo shortly).

Ikea spice rack bookshelves - a great Ikea hack, how to use Ikea Bekvam spice racks as bookshelves, perfect for a nursery or children's room

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31 Comments

  • Adele @ Circus Queen

    July 2, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Amazing work! I am now desperate to paint our doors! Funnily enough, it never occurred to me! I love the colours you’ve chosen. Looking forward to seeing your fireplace too. We have an awful electric pretend fire left by the previous owners. I can’t wait to replace it when we get the funds.

  • Jenni

    July 2, 2014 at 7:35 pm

    I really love the coloursyou’ve used! I’ve been on the hunt for some of those spice racks for months to make some book racks but they dont seem to have them in bristol or milton keynes 🙁

  • fritha

    July 2, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    oh I love all the bright colours in your house! We did the same for Wilf’s room but hadn’t got round to painting them yet. Funny enough we are doing up his room at the moment as it seemed a little ‘babyish’ for him now he’s two and a half and I had it on my list to paint these yellow. Looks fab! x

  • laura redburn

    July 3, 2014 at 8:29 am

    this is such a good idea, and i love that turquoise!

  • Polly

    July 3, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    looking good – great colour picks!

  • Jess @ Along Came Cherry

    July 3, 2014 at 5:40 pm

    I can remember seeing this on Pinterest ages ago and thought what a great idea it was, I’m sure I looked in Ikea once but couldn’t find them. Will have to look again. Boxes a fab idea too and the colours look great x

  • Laura

    July 4, 2014 at 10:06 am

    I have to say I am a huge fan of Ikea for simple storage ideas – they are simply the best for stylish and useful storage

    Laura x

  • Sowmia

    July 6, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    Lovely job!

    A few questions-
    1. What color/brand of turquoise paint did you use to paint the spice racks? Did you prime first?

    2. Where did you get the adorable teeny tiny bunting that is shown on the spice racks? It’s such a sweet touch!

    Thanks!

    1. gillian

      September 20, 2014 at 8:31 pm

      Thank you! We used a tester post from Wilkinsons – we didn’t prime first, just painted them straight on. The bunting was from Tiger – it’s brilliant! So much randomly good stuff x

  • Emily Dew

    July 6, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    I love that you sent Alex a diary invite to block out his time!!!

  • 25 weeks pregnant |

    July 7, 2014 at 8:01 am

    […] our halls, like some giant and crazy nesting pregnant creature. We’re nearly finished with Eliza’s room, and work on our kitchen starts next week, so I have hope that we might be at some reasonable level […]

  • Alison Perry

    July 9, 2014 at 9:37 am

    It’s starting to look amazing. Of course I’ll give you a PROPER verdict when you invite me round for tea 😉

    1. gillian

      July 9, 2014 at 9:01 pm

      Come round whenever! It is slightly chaotic at the moment with no kitchen and a light covering of dust everywhere though 🙂 x

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  • Tori

    July 11, 2014 at 7:35 am

    Where’s the green paint from? Great shade!

    1. gillian

      July 17, 2014 at 12:33 pm

      It was Dulux I think – some kind of ‘feature wall’ paint. Will go and look in the shed! x

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