I am so excited to share my DIY IKEA Bench! I was at IKEA a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with their Nornas bench with storage. We’ve been updating my daughter’s bedroom decor from a tween’s bedroom to a teen’s room. We started by covering the pink and purple walls with white paint. A little boring I know, but given that this is a basement bedroom we love the brightness the white walls bring.
I thought the DIY IKEA bench was the perfect addition to my daughter’s room. But, the $199 price tag was not so cool. I took a couple of pics at the store and after a few other purchases I went home and decided to build this piece.
This is a pretty easy build. You will only need 1 x12s and 2x2s, all straight cuts. I spent about $30 in lumber and some paint. I even had time to do a little Black Friday shopping the day I built it!
The dimensions are 4′ long, 20″ tall ,and 12″ deep. The compartments are 15″ wide
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DIY IKEA Bench
Materials:
-
- (2) 1 x 12 x 8′ ( Cuts: 2 cuts at 4′, and 5 cuts at 15″)
- (2) 2 x 2 x 8′ (Cuts: 2 cuts at 44 1/2″, 2 cuts at 7 1/4″, 4 cuts at 3 1/2″)
- Pocket Hole Jig
- Miter Saw
(or hand saw, circular saw, or have pieces cut at the store)
- Drill/Driver
to attach screws
- 2 1/2″ pocket screws
- 1″ pocket screws
- Wood Glue (use on all seams)
- Satin Nickel Metallic Spray Paint
for the legs
- Minwax Natural Stain
(or stain color of choice)
(or hand saw, circular saw, or have pieces cut at the store)
to attach screws
for the legs
(or stain color of choice)Get the plans for this bench delivered to your Inbox!
1. Cut the first 1×12 into ( 2) 4-foot pieces. These will make the top and bottom of you bench.
2. Cut the second 1×12 piece into 5- 15″ pieces
3. Cut the 2x2s as shown below
4. Drill pocket holes on each of the pieces, except the 4′ pieces. I used my Kreg Jig to do this.
5. Once the pocket holes are drilled, you can start by building the legs. I used
2 1/2″ pocket screws here.
6. I used metallic spray paint on this piece. The idea was to make the legs look like metal. When I first saw the IKEA piece I was sure the legs were metal, but nope, they were wood. Here’s the spray paint I used.
7. I started putting together the rest of the piece while this dried.
Start by making an “H”, this is the middle piece of the bench. Make sure the pocket holes face OUT on the vertical pieces. I learned the hard way here and had to take it apart and re-attach. Oops.
Make sure you mark the middle really well so the shelf is leveled. Use wood glue on all of the seams. I used 1″ pocket screws on all of the 1×12 pieces.
8. Attach the “H” to the 4′ piece. Coming together!
9. Add the end pieces. Remember, use 1″ pocket screws here!
At this point I went ahead and stained the piece. I used a natural stain. The pic above shows the piece already stained. You can choose a different finish or you can paint it any color you like! I wanted mine to resemble the IKEA bench as much as possible.
10. Then I added the top piece and voila!
11. Now you are ready to add the legs. Make sure the piece is upside down. I also used 1″ pocket screws here.
I love how the legs look like metal!! 
I also found these storage boxes at Home Depot.
Here’s a couple more pics of the finished bench!
By the way, everything else in this room is from IKEA. Yes, I’m obsessed with the place.
I hope you like the bench!!
Why not PIN FOR LATER?!
Seb Dani
14 Dec 2015Nice and very informative post. I love the way put every step with pictures.
Keep it up! Well done! ?
Rebecca
16 Jun 2016That bench turned out really well. It looks just like the Ikea bench, but a much better price tag. Thanks for the instructions. I’m pinning so I can make it.
Janice
17 Jun 2016Thanks Rebecca!! Send me a picture after you build it 🙂 I’d love to see it!
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Emily
21 Jun 2016This turned out awesome – and you can’t beat the price! Thanks for linking up with Creative Spark; I’m featuring your storage bench this week. Our party goes live at 6am EST tomorrow. Hope you’ll stop by and link up again!
Janice
21 Jun 2016Oh wow! Thank you so much Emily! I will be stopping by 🙂 thank you again for the kind words and for the feature!
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Ivory
26 Jul 2016Beautiful, wow!
Janice
27 Jul 2016Thank you Ivory!
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Pili
24 Sep 2016I bought a Kreg Jig recently and this seems an easy project to do! I can see it upholstered on my daughter’s bedroom, thanks for sharing all the steps.
I would love to invite you share it at our Sweet Inspiration link up party, which is live every week from Friday to Tuesday.
Enjoy the weekend!!
Janice
24 Sep 2016Hi Pili! You will love the Kreg jig! Thanks for the invite! I will definitely share!
Mary-the boondocks blog
30 Sep 2016Definitely a great build. You did a fantastic job here and I’m sure it was at a fraction of the cos even though Ikea is pretty economical we DIYers are cheap! “wink” Pinning and sharing.
Janice
30 Sep 2016Thanks Mary! IKEA’s version is $199 and it is smaller 🙂
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Mandy
15 Apr 2019Is this safe for sitting on?
Janice| Sawdust Sisters
22 Apr 2019Yes, absolutely!
Nikki
2 Jan 2020I’m about to make two of these for my girls as I redo their bedroom! With a cushion top for sitting on. I am looking forward to this!
Janice| Sawdust Sisters
2 Jan 2020Yay!! I’d love to see pictures when you’re finished!! 🙂