Furniture & Interior

IKEA Malm Kitchen Cabinets Hack

In this project I’ll show you how we optimized our floor space in the bedroom by hacking IKEA Metod (Sektion) kitchen cabinets into a storage headboard solution.

  • Date

    March 26, 2017

  • Difficulty

    Intermediate

  • Category

    Furniture & Interior

01. Intro

Hey folks! Today I’m going to show you how I hacked my MALM Bed from IKEA (I have the lower version, which was sold until late 2016, I think). Due to space issues I decided to get rid of my old nightstands and search for something more convenient instead. I came up with the idea of a headboard with storage. I even think IKEA is offering something like this, but I wanted to keep my old bed and figured it wouldn’t fit, so I went with a DIY project. 

headboard01
headboard03

02. How to

Basically all you need to recreate this project are kitchen cabinets, a big wooden panel as a topping and two smaller ones, some squared timbers and stain of your choice.

Assembling the cabinets & preparing the cut-outs

I went for two IKEA METOD kitchen cabinets (20 cm width), two plywood panels fitting right under the cabinets (to allow the doors without handles to work properly), a birch wood panel with oak wood stain and squared timbers painted white (1 x 196,5 cm x 5,4 cm x 3,4 cm & 2 x 90 cm x 5,4 cm x 3,4 cm). I used two smaller ones in order to fit some wires through the gap in between of them. I started out with putting the IKEA cabinets together and placed them on the plywood panels behind my bed (I also cut out some holes for the wall sockets).

Preparing the countertop

I stained the birch wood panel in an oak color and the squared timbers in a white and after they dried down completely I put everything together.

Assembling, tipps & tricks

I decided to add some doors to it as well (IKEA Häggeby doors with push-to-open did the trick for me).

Good to know: Screw the hinges in place before you actually attach the side panels. It's much easier because you can't fit a regular screw driver inside the small kitchen cabinet afterwards.

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17 comments

      1. How many cabinets you used?? I need to create one of 160cm but the cabinets are just 31xm deep so I have to put something between the 2 cabinets. What did you use?

        Reply

        1. Hey Marta, I used two cabinets that were 63cm deep in order to maximize storage. I didn’t put anything in between as I wouldn’t be able to reach it anyways. I just topped the cabinets with a wood board and left it like that. Hope that helps 🙂

          Reply

    1. Hey There!
      Those are the regular kitchen cabinets from IKEA’s main range. In Europe they’re called METOD (I used the 20cm wide ones). I believe in the U.S. they’re called SEKTION. Hope that helps 🙂

      Reply

  • Hey Jackie,

    what a great idea!

    Can you tell me if the wood panel is from Ikea as well, I am struggling bit to find something similar 🙂

    Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Hey Valentina,
      Thank you so much! The top board is a regular piece of beech wood I picked up at the hardware store. They also cut it to size for me. I only did two coats of a darker stain. But I think oak or walnut will also look stunning on top! 🙂

      Reply

  • Hey Jacky das sieht ja richtig genial aus… Klasse!
    Darf ich fragen wie du die Halzplatte befestigt hast? Oder liegt die einfach oben drauf?

    Reply

    1. Hey Tamara,
      danke dir! Bei mir liegt die Platte einfach nur oben auf, allerdings könnte man die auch ganz leicht festmachen, wenn man die Arbeitsplattenbefestigung der Küchenschränke dafür nutzt (Diese Aluschiene hinten im Schrank). Liebe Grüße!

      Reply

  • Hey Jacky,
    Super Inspiration. Ich werde das auch so umsetzen. Wie hat das bei dir mit den Höhen gepasst? Der Metod Schrank ist ja nur 80cm hoch, das Malm glaube ich 100cm. Hast du a noch irgendwas angepasst?
    Und kannst du mir vielleicht verraten welche Türen du genommen hast?

    Reply

    1. Hey Nora,
      danke dir! Ich hatte noch eine ältere Version vom Malm Bett, die nur 85cm hoch war. Habe das ganze mit einem Kantholz unterlegt in 5cm Höhe und konnte das so ausgleichen. Ich habe die KUNGSBACKA Türen in weiß an beiden Seiten. Könnte mir aber auch vorstellen, dass man mit einem Sockel und entsprechenden Füßen die Höhe der Küchenschränke vielleicht ganz gut anpassen kann an die Höhe des neuen MALM Betts.

      Reply

  • Hey Jackie, vielen Dank für die tolle Inspiration, ich würde deine Idee auch gerne umsetzen, leider ist mir nicht ganz klar wie du den Spalt zwischen den zwei Schränken geschlossen hast? Danke für deine Hilfe

    Reply

    1. Hey Kristina,
      die beiden Küchenschränke stehen einfach Rücken an Rücken mit Abstand hinter dem Bett. Die Lücke dazwischen hab ich genutzt, um Kabel zu verlegen und Lampen anzuschließen und hab dann einfach die obere Abdeckplatte auf ganze Länge dran geschraubt, da das Kopfteil die Lücke von vorne verdeckt. Also in der Mitte unter der Platte ist einfach die Lücke. Hoffe, dass hilft!
      Liebe Grüße!

      Reply

  • Hi Jackie,
    I was looking for a headboard using the Metod cabinet and I’m so happy that you have done it with this lovely result!
    Can I ask you where you bought the vertical white panel between the bed and the cabinets? Did you also add any supports under the horizontal panel or is it supported only on the Metod cabinets?
    Thank you 🙂

    Reply

    1. The vertical panel is the actual headboard of the IKEA Malm bed I’ve used here. But I could imagine that attaching a wood panel with screws from the inside of the kitchen cabinets could also work and look seamless and nice.

      Reply

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