We’ve long been an admirer of this gorgeous Ikea Kallax sideboard. It’s an Ikea hack that was created by Kylie from Lux Hax, the company behind those gorgeous mirrored ‘Styl-Panels‘ you see on the front of the Kallax unit.
Lux Hax make these Styl-Panels in a variety of styles and finishes. They come in sizes suitable for Ikea Kallax, Besta, Hemnes and Malm that could save you thousands on furniture and interior design.
Simply put, they are an Ikea hackers dream material! You can take a Kallax unit from basic to beautiful faster than you can say ‘Jack Robinson’.
We take a look at how Kylie created her stunning Kallax sideboard.
This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure here for more info.
A Glamorous Ikea Kallax Sideboard Hack
The Starting Point
As always, the project started off with a need and then took on a life of its own.
“A second lounge room in our home was calling for a sideboard – something chic and a little bit glamorous to make the room feel more formal and to match our black piano. After shopping around for months, I still couldn’t find the right piece so the solution was to take matters into my own hands. As always, I chose IKEA as my starting point, this time using a four-by-one IKEA Kallax cube unit as the basis for the project.” – Kylie, Lux Hax
The Ikea Kallax is such a versatile piece of furniture. We’ve seen from countless Ikea Kallax hacks how creative you can get with it. From a mid-century modern vinyl storage unit to a contemporary cat bed, so many unique creations are possible.
Kylie’s Ikea Kallax hack started with a black/brown Kallax unit with additional inserts and doors to create the basic structure for the sideboard.
She then added the glamour and styling!
Raising Up The Ikea Kallax Unit
First came an elegant set of four mid-century style tapered legs in black with brass toes. These gorgeous legs are from Pretty Pegs, a Swedish company that produces a range of legs and knobs to help you upgrade your Ikea furniture.
There are so many options available to you when thinking of adding legs to a piece of Ikea furniture.
Kylie had to fit mounting plates to the underside of the Kallax unit to attach the legs. These were supplied with the legs, but you should always check whether you might need them if you get your legs from other sources.
By raising the Kallax unit up on these legs Kylie gave the piece more presence and function. It was now definitely a sideboard!
Glamming Up The Ikea Kallax Unit
So, after putting the Kallax unit together, fitting inserts and doors and then adding the legs this Ikea hack was coming together nicely! The next step was to add in that glamorous element that makes this sideboard so stunning!
Kylie chose a Morroccan style gold mirrored panel (Styl-Panel 1118) from the Lux Hax range to compliment the black of the unit and to tie into the brass of the leg tips. These panels are so easy to use because they are self-adhesive. You just take them out of the package, line them up and place them on! Instant glamour!
Kylie decided against fitting the knobs back on the doors so as to keep the clean lines of the finished panels. If you want to put your doorknobs back on then you will need to gently drill through the style panel (the style panels cover the hole where the knob is attached, which is actually a good thing if you don’t want to replace the knobs!).
We think the best option is to get some push-to-open catches so that you can still open the doors easily but don’t have the doorknob ruining the look you’ve just created!
And that’s it! Let’s go through those steps again in case you missed them:
- Step 1: Put together an Ikea Kallax 4 x 1 unit and add inserts with doors
- Step 2: Fit legs to the underside of the Kallax unit
- Step 3: Place Lux Hax Styl-Panels on the doors
- Step 4 (Optional): Fit door knobs back on or fit push-to-open catches
When you put all the steps down like that it highlights just how simple this Ikea Kallax hack really is! The simplicity of the Lux Hax style panels really make this project accessible to anyone, regardless of DIY skills. You can find the full tutorial from Lux Hax.
We’re sure you could pull this Ikea hack off and the great thing is you can customise it however you like by shopping all the Lux Hax Styl-Panel options.
It’s not only us that have fallen in love with this Ikea Kallax sideboard makeover. Several Lux Hax customers have recreated the look and even switched it up to their own style.
This awesome project cost around $300 to create. That includes the Ikea Kallax unit and inserts, additional legs and the style panels. When you consider something like this could easily cost over $1000 it is quite amazing what you can do.
With a basic piece of Ikea furniture, some amazing products designed with Ikea hacks in mind and a bit of creativity you can make designer furniture on a tight budget. Head over to Lux Hax now and select your perfect Styl-Panel.
If you choose to make this or a variation of this project please do let us know so we can share with everyone (I know Lux Hax love to see the amazing things their customers do with their products).