DIY Ikea EKET Cabinet Door Hack

This EKET Ikea Hack was such a fun DIY! I had bought two EKET cabinets with doors and two EKET cubes to give me some storage for my kids toys. The first thing I did was to build a wooden top for the cabinet set, you can find that post here! Once that was completed, I knew I wanted to upgrade the doors and had some handles.

I played with a few different ideas but ultimately decided to use some textured wallpaper and thin trim to create a somewhat of a shaker cabinet look.

Step 1: Lightly Sand the Door Fronts

Using a fine sanding block, lightly hand sand the front of the doors.

This is an important step to make the finish on the ikea doors a bit rough. This will create a surface for the glue and wallpaper to grab to.

Step 2: Glue Wallpaper to Doors

I found this wallpaper at Home Depot but there are so many different options! Below, I linked a few options that I like. I traced the door size on the back of the wallpaper and then cut out 4 pieces, one for each door.

So this post is one step shorter than the steps I actually took, but that’s the benefit! You get to learn from my mistakes!

At first I attempted to use the wallpaper adhesive to adhere the paper to the door fronts. I followed the instructions provided with the wallpaper to a tee. Unfortunately, after the paper had dried it was not stuck to the door fronts at all!

What I ended up doing was grabbing some gorilla brand spray adhesive.

I sprayed the adhesive on both the door front and the back of the paper and then laid the wallpaper onto the door and pressed it slowly to ensure there were no air bubbles caught underneath. This turned out to be an easy fix and the glue held the paper to the door perfectly!

Step 3: Paint the Doors

Step 3 and Step 4 could be interchangeable depending on the type of trim you choose to use. For me, I had found this flexible PVC trim that already had a perfect finish to it, therefore, I did not need to or want to paint the trim. Since the wallpaper was paintable wallpaper, it did need to be painted. So I decided to paint the wallpaper prior to attaching the trim pieces.

I used a white semi-gloss paint I had on hand and a small roller to paint the door fronts. I was worried that the roller would not be able to fully cover the texture of the wallpaper. Fortunately, it actually covered very easily! I did a two coats of paint on the wallpapered door fronts.

Step 4: Add the door Trim

To add the door trim I cut eight pieces of the PVC trim at 13 inches for the short sides and then eight pieces at 23 inches for the long sides. I then used liquid nails and my clamps to attach the trim to the doors.

Step 5: Drill Holes for Handles & Attach Handles

I had these basic black cabinet pulls on hand from another project that I knew would be perfect for the look I was going for. These handles were 5″ on hole center, total length is 7.38″ long.

I measured to the center of the door and then 2.5″ out from there to find where to drill my holes. Once marked I used a drill and drill bit to drill the holes. Once the holes were drilled I was able to easily attach the handles just using a screw driver.

Step 6: Reattach Doors

To reattach my doors, I decided to add some small hinges instead of using the pin and hole option that comes with the EKET cabinet. Adding hinges allows for the doors to open wider and created more easy for the toy baskets that would be stored in this cabinet.

I had to notch out a small amount on the doors to create and inset space for the hinge to sit. To create the notch, I used a hammer, utility knife, and a small screw driver. I first marked the spaced for the hinge and then worked with my tools to slightly notch it out.