BILLY built-ins to DIY home office (on a budget of course!)
Updated: Oct 23
How an upcycled bed frame transformed our IKEA hack built-ins into a functional DIY home office
The pandemic is (just about) over so you might be wondering why we needed a DIY home office? Over the past couple of years, a lot has changed at Douglas HQ. We've both gone from being full-time employees (with the associated joys of commuting and office politics) to 100% WFH, freelance creatives. No longer working for the man, instead masters of our own destiny but all the while fighting over the kitchen table as we didn't have a single spare room to use as an office! After trialling various console tables and other furniture as make-shift desks I decided that we needed a more practical solution.
A kid's bedroom reshuffle produced an old bed frame (well actually just the head and foot parts but I don't think they have a joint name), to save a tip-run to dispose of it, I tasked myself with repurposing the wood to create a desk - ideally a pull-out one so it could be hidden when not in use. I was pretty sure I could adapt my IKEA hack BILLY built-in shelves to house the desk so I set about drawing up a design. I purposefully kept it very simple as function was the main driver on this project.
Here's my step-by-step guide for how I upcycled the bed frame into a pull-out desk and snazzy DIY home office.
1. Make pull-out desk frame
I adapted the bed head to create a pull-out frame for the desk to sit on. It was super simple and the main idea was for it to be sturdy blend in with the built-in shelves when pushed back and not in use.
2. Adapt the built-in shelves
I removed a middle shelf where the computer monitor would need to sit and a shelf that would have been knee-height to accommodate someone sitting at the desk and mirrored these changes on the far RHS bookcase. I took the fake shelf fronts off first, to make the actual shelf removal easier, which reminds me, people always ask how I got the shelf-fronts to look thicker than the classic thin BILLY shelves and it was super simple. I stuck some 50mm wide MDF strips over the actual shelf fronts with No More Nails grab adhesive, then filled any gaps with flexible filler, sanded, primed and painted. Taking them off was really easy, just a case off pulling the overhanging MDF strip and levering off.
3. Build pull-out mechanism
I wanted to create a simple way to keep the desk frame sturdy when in use but without adding lots of extra pieces that would make it bulky and stand out from the main structure of the shelves, so I had a really simple idea to use slats from the bed-frame to create a guide fixed to the side of the built-ins for the protruding support pieces to slot into.
As you can see from the picture, this was certainly a no-frills approach but there was no need to reinvent the wheel here, it just needed to work. I reused some of the holes that had been drilled for when it was a bed frame, hence why some of them look a bit larger than the others.
This was actually a prototype, after I had tested it to check it worked I moved it down the wall closer to the floor, to made it easier to hide (with a storage basket).
4. A coat of paint
This DIY project is part of a larger overhaul of the downstairs of our house and as such I changed the colour of the whole built-in shelf unit at the same time as creating the pull-out desk. I opted for Farrow and Ball's Dimity as its a calming neutral shade that's not cold or grey. You can also see from the image below that I had started adding some extra compartments in to the central shelves.
5. Add shelf compartments
I was keen to take this opportunity to add in some extra compartments to the central shelves to add some interest and make them look more bespoke and less 'BILLY'. I had a great idea (well i thought it was anyway!) to use the shelves that I had removed and repurpose them into the compartment dividers as they would be the exact depth already, so would only need cutting to the desired lengths.
As you can see from my excellent (ah-hem!) drawing above, I'd planned to create a symmetrical arrangement with the extra dividers, but upon creating them in real-life I thought it looked a bit twee and decided to go a bit more interesting still with an asymmetrical set-up (below).
6. Make the desk
I used a couple of pieces of MDF sheet to create the desk top as I wanted it to fold up into the shelf when not in use and then flatten out when you needed it. I taped the pieces together with strong paintable tape to allow the fold in the middle to be really flexible. It's exactly the same principal as the board in a board game (think Scrabble for example) when it folds up to fit in the box and then opens up when you play. I then primed and painted it the same colour as the shelving so that it would blend in perfectly.
And there you have it, a super simple, low budget (no cost at all actually as I upcycled all the wood) pull-out desk. To finish off the DIY home office I channelled holes through the built-in shelves for the power cable of the computer. I was able to do this as we fortunately had a plug socket in the bottom of the middle RHS cupboard. This meant we could then fit the computer in the space I had made by removing the shelf and power it up ready for use.
The results of the DIY home office upcycled transformation.
I need to take some official 'after' images with the shelves all styled up, but I didn't want to delay sharing this until then as I know what I'm like, and it could be weeks and weeks! So here are the rough and ready final pics to give the you idea.
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