On TikTok, the hashtag #IkeaHacks has racked up over 81,000 posts, and on Instagram that number is a whopping 756,000 posts—proving that customizing IKEA has primed, plastered, and painted its way into our hearts (and social media feeds). And while some of the hacks require only a screwdriver, others get much more involved, calling for power tools and a carpenter’s eye. So if you want to get crafty but feel overwhelmed, we’ve got a hack for your hacks: O’verlays.
A decorative trim company, O’verlays makes fretwork panels specifically for IKEA furniture. Its pieces come in various patterns and sizes and can be applied to a slew of items, including dressers, desks, doors, and bookcases. Application requires only glue and sometimes drilling a hole to add drawer pulls. Plus the panels are all in white so you can customize the updated piece even further with paint. To see O’verlays in full IKEA-hacking action, we’ve rounded up five of our favorite projects.
Fabulous Fluting
Add gorgeous grooves to the front of an eight-drawer Hemnes dresser with O’verlays’s Mini Fluted Dresser Kit. The upgrade can turn a utilitarian clothing keeper into a console table worthy of your foyer.
Greek Key Goodness
Is it IKEA or is it antique? With the Greek Key Kit for the five-drawer Kullen dresser, it’s hard to tell. Here’s a fun fact: The geometric design now known as the Greek key has been found on Egyptian tombs, Mayan carvings, and ancient Greek floors—and now, potentially, in your home.
Decked-Out Desk
Turn a humdrum desk into a stylish vanity with the Anne Kit for the two-drawer IKEA Micke desk. For a feminine touch, paint the O’verlays pieces gold and either leave the desk white or paint it blush pink. Then find a matching vanity stool with gold legs.
Curve Appeal
By using the Dee Dee Single Kit, your Koppang chest will no longer look like furniture you picked up along with a bag of frozen Swedish meatballs, but instead a piece you sourced from an atelier in Paris.
Bougie Bookcase
The only problem with the Chip Kit is that once you’ve installed it, the upgraded look might make you think you need something fancier for inside your Billy bookcase. Go ahead and start collecting crystal and porcelain—or just treat your paperbacks to a really nice home.