DIY Wood + White Console

By Kate Riley June 30, 2016

Two weeks ago I decided to upgrade the media console in the house in Las Vegas, I wanted something exactly four feet wide, wood and white, with a clean modern look. After looking around at IKEA I decided to piece together some of their products to create it and include some DIY leather pulls too.

The idea came from all those credenza projects that have been featured around the blogosphere for a few years, the idea of wrapping white IKEA cabinets in wood isn’t new but instead of floating it as a “fauxdenza” like we’ve seen before I decided to make it freestanding with four legs I also purchased at IKEA.

 wood white midcentury console ikea hack

 

To create this 48″ wide console I bought two Sektion cabinets, two Veddinge doors (also the hinges that go with them), and four Hilver legs.

 wood and white console ikea hack

 

To build it, Matt helped me screw the two Sektion cabinets together and wrap it in birch wood, secured with brad nails. We found ¾” x 7 ½” birch planks at Lowes and cut the strips to wrap the sides and form the top.

 wrap in birch

 

I coated the raw birch with Walnut wax just like I did with the adjacent fireplace mantel.

 walnut wax

Originally I was going to shop for mid century looking legs online, but when I spied the Hilver table legs with the white metal top and wood base at IKEA I thought dang I’ll just cut those suckers down with a miter saw and make cute little mid centuryish looking legs.

 cut hilver legs

Right?

 mid century style legs

I also positioned the front legs wider than the back, I love this look.

 mid century console ikea hack

Here’s looking at it from upside down, we used ¾” screws to secure the legs to the cabinets.

 console upside down

 

 ikea hack wood white console

 

The little leather pulls were so easy to make. I wanted to use white and not tan leather and it was tricky to track some down but I found a 12×12″ piece of white leather from this shop and it worked perfectly. I also scrounged up two screws with wing nuts from my stash and spray painted them gold.

 white leather gold screw

 

To make these leather pulls simply cut a 1 ½ x 10″ strip of leather and fold it over as seen below. Lay the leather strip down on a piece of wood and use a drill bit to make the hole through it, insert the screw then secure it to the cabinet with a nut.

 leather pull

 

True love!!

 diy white leather pulls

 

I styled it above generically but for this space the whole point of the project was to use it as a media console to support the TV and hold the DVD player and DVDs inside.

 wood white ikea hack console

 

Before there was a more traditional looking media stand in this spot but its style wasn’t working with the modern kitchen and fireplace so I moved it up to the master bedroom and replaced it with this DIY wood and white console.

 ikea hack midcentury media console

 

The family room, breakfast nook, and kitchen feel much more connected (decor wise) with the new wood and white media console!

 cement tile fireplace

On the left in the picture of the family room below is my favorite multitasking baker’s rack and beyond it is the fab teal blue sectional.

 centsational girl family room

Deets on the sliding door fabric curtain here, it’s “the bomb dot com” as my tween daughter would say. The DIY fireplace project can be found here. You can also tour the kitchen and breakfast nook in this post and this post.

Wishing you all a Happy Fourth of July weekend!

10 comments

  1. Looks great! I have been wanting to make something like this but with three cabinets across. I think I would need a supporting piece on the bottom to support the middle cabinet. Anyway, I think you are local to me, for leather check out Barta Hides on Lakeville (right before the car wash place). Once you get past the literal dead animal feel, they have a whole warehouse of leather hides and scraps. The scraps are by the pound and you can dig through to find whatever color and size you need.

  2. Kate, as always, your ideas and execution are amazing! But I have a question about the “jungly” leaves on the mantle. What are they called and where might i find some?

  3. Dang! This is absolutely beautiful! Love love your creativity and your style. And the leather pulls are awesome.

  4. The leaves might be split leaf philodendron. I believe there was a recent post about using greenery…

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