Ikea Hack: Faux Apothecary Cabinet and Safety Video With 3M

This post is in collaboration with 3MDIY.com. All thoughts, opinions and projects ideas are my own.

I had a great opportunity to work with  3MDIY.com again and create a nice little reminder video about keeping safety the #1 priority when doing any DIY project. I am always caught thinking, "Well, it's only one cut. Nothing can happen this one time." But that's why it is called an accident, it only takes that one cut or that one time to seriously injure yourself. I remind myself daily of this and before I start any project. I feel like it's something my mother would say lol...but, hey, aren't mom's always right? (you can view the video at the end of this post)

 While preparing for this video, I had a fun little project I got to make where I had the opportunity to put my safety gear back on. I had this wonderful little Ikea® bookshelf in my kitchen for a little bit now. I got it to add more storage space for our food since we are somewhat lacking in the pantry arena...aka...we don't have one. But, it has now been a place to have the babe throw all her bowls and toys in instead. So, I figured it needed to make some doors so it can be used for what I actually intended it to be used for...and something that is much needed. But, I didn't want any ol' doors. I thought it would be fun to turn it into a cute little faux apothecary cabinet instead.

Here's the supplies I used:
3M™ Safety Products (Safety Glasses & Respirator)

Building Materials:

Ikea® Expedit Bookshelf (on clearance now!)
2 pieces of particle board cut at 14.5"x29" each
12 square pieces cut from a 1x6, so they ended up being 5.75"x5.75"
Wood glue
Paint
12 knobs
4 hinges
2 magnets for cabinets
Here are the hinges and magnets I used:

 I first had to decide how many squares I wanted and what size, I did this by making little squares out of paper and laying them out.

From there, I did the following steps:

Step 1: Lining up the square pieces on the particle board. I did 3 inches down on each end and 1 inch in from each side. Then found the middle on the top and bottom and two sides and marked it for the middle rows.

Step 2. Place the squares on the marks and then use the wood glue to glue in place. Clamp down and wait for it to adhere.

 

Step3: Paint

Step 4: Find the middle of each square. I found that this was a lot easier to do if you make a same size square out of a piece of paper, fold it in half, and then cut a little tiny hole out of the middle. Lay this flat on the wood squares, and use a pen/pencil the mark through the middle hole of the paper onto the wood. Make sense? This will save you a ton of time.

Step 5: Drill holes through each mark on the square using a drill bit that is the same size or slightly smaller than the diameter of the bolts for your knobs.

Step 6: Screw the bolts in and attach the knobs.

Step 7: Attach 2 hinges to one side of each of the doors.

Step 8: Line the door up on the front of the cabinet and mark where your hinges will go and then screw the hinges into the cabinet. Do this to the other door as well making sure you lined them up to meet directly in the middle.

If I were to do this again, I would secure the hinges to the cabinet first and then to the doors. I'm not sure what would be easier, but I bet this way just might be :)

Step 9: Attach the magnets either on the top or bottom of the cabinet, and the steel plate against the corresponding part of the door.

Step 10: Enjoy your 'apothecary' cabinet!

Now I used some outside hinges that I'm not quite a fan of but they work. If you want a more finished look, I would do some inside mount hinges, kind of like the ones they use on cabinets.

I still have to get used to looking at this every day, I love how much interest it brings to the piece.
Here's how it looks opened:

I know that the little one is going to have a tough time not playing in her bowls anymore but I think she'll manage :) Plus, now she'll be able to play with all these knobs, which may be even better. I will be adding a lock on here if I notice she is getting into the food too much. These magnets are pretty strong though so they should keep her out for the time being.
Here's the before:

 And after:

The cost of this was more than I would hope :) ...just because I couldn't find any cheaper knobs that I liked. Here's the breakdown:
Ikea Expedit Bookshelf (on clearance now!) -a gift but it would end up costing $35
2 pieces of particle board cut at 14.5"x29" each -got a 4'x4' on clearance at Home Depot for $3
12 square pieces cut from a 1x6, so they ended up being 5.75"x5.75" -Free, used remnants
Wood glue -had on hand
Paint -had on hand
12 knobs -$2 each, so $24 (!!ah!!)
4 hinges -$4 for all, $2 each for each pair
2 magnets for cabinets -$2 each

So for me, the total cost was $33. But if you want to buy the cabinet along with it it would $68. But if you have an existing cabinet of any sort, you can do this same idea to it to spruce it up. I may just end up doing this to our TV stand. I'm getting really tired of the way it's starting to look :)

Hope you enjoy the safety video from 3MDIY.com and myself!

I am proud to be a 3M- sponsored blogger, and, as part of my responsibilities, I get the opportunity to evaluate products from 3M DIY. Opinions are my own and additional product used in the project were selected by me.