6 Amazing Ikea’s Billy Bookcase Hacks Especially for Children

Li-ling Ooi Bedroom, Furniture, Home & Kitchen, Living Room 0

IKEA’s Billy Bookcase is a classic piece of furniture that has captured the hearts and imagination of many IKEA furniture fans. It’s simplicity coupled with it’s versatility has ensured that it continues to be part of the wide range of ever-changing merchandise in the furniture range.

While it has always been primarily marketed as a book case, the add-ons that you can buy for it, ranging for glass doors to shelving cases and lighting systems has ensured an ever-growing and ever changing range of uses.

Here in this post, we look at some of the best uses of the Billy book case for children.

Table of Contents

1. Doll’s House

This sweet doll’s house is a solution to every girl’s fantasy of a doll’s house. Although it does not quite fit the traditional idea of a dolls house, it’s appeal lies in the minimal space that it takes up and the fact that it’s rooms are both easily accessible and adaptable.

Find out how to make your own here:

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2014/07/dollhouse-bookcase-billy-hack.html

2. Sweet Shop / Play Market

Children’ love to interact with the grown up world; it gives them both a sense of belonging and a way of making sense of the world around them. This model sweet shop could very easily be converted in to a fruit and veg or a supermarket type store simply by varying the types of ‘goods’ available for sale. Add on a till and some toy money and you have a perfect place for learning all about the mechanics of trade.

Find out how to make your own here:

http://damasklove.com/diy-pretend-play-sweet-shoppe/

3. Children’s Closet

A converted billy bookcase makes a perfect solution to a child’s clothes storage, for a variety of reasons. Their clothes tend to fold down in to smaller pieces and take up less space, making the depth of the billy perfectly suited. Accessibility also comes in to play when the lower half of a tall billy is converted in to a storage space with doors, it’s height (might be a little low for grown ups) is perfect for children aged between 2 and 8.

Of course, for a dedicated space of dressing up complete with fancy shoes and accessories, there’s only the little addition of a hanging rail to allow outfits to be hung perfectly.

For ideas on how to pull this off:

4. Bench/Window Seat

Everyone knows that a window seat is a great place to sit and watch the world go by; whether it’s simply staring out in to space, dreaming or curled up with a favourite book or two, a window seat incorporates the essential ingredients of natural lighting and warmth.

Window seats perfectly sized for children are hard to come by, however, if you happen to have space under a window that is not yet utilised, perhaps these billy book case hacks might give you some ideas.

Converting a book case in to a window seat for children, seems a tremendously appealing idea, considering that it provides both the structural reinforcements to hold a relatively good weight, along with the ability to use the space as storage. Adding a good seat cushion and some throw pillows to make the space more inviting, turns it in to a very simple, yet most exciting outcome.

Of course, you could even go further and create an imaginary rocket-ship window seat, or a seat for a princess trapped in a tower with a window – the possibilities are endless, I’m sure the kids will agree.

Check out the following links on how they turned the billy in to a seat.

6. Mud Locker

If you’re fed-up of coats, boots and wellies strewn across the hallway, this converted billy bookcase may be just the perfect solution. Each converted case is dedicated to a child with adequate space for coat, shoes, boots, even a gym bag or two, making it a great solution also in the classroom.

Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from assigning a space to each grown up too. And on top of that, the space is perfectly customisable – think stickers and other decorative objects!

http://www.polkadotchair.com/2011/01/make-your-own-mud-room-lockers.html/

Bonus: 7. Changing Station

Perhaps more of a hack for parents of young children than children themselves, is the conversion of a set of billy bookcases in to a changing station for babies. Changing stations as they come are pretty specific types of furniture, which, let’s face it, you would hope to not use in about a year or two at most.

That said, a perfect alternative to forking out the money for a dedicated piece of furniture with limited life has to be one that is ’transformable’ and able to ‘grow’ (read: converted) in the future.

This is just the case with this billy bookcase hack that takes a set of billy bookcases and converts it in to a changing station complete with changing mat and storage area:

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/03/billy-baby-changing-station.html

Of course, over time, when baby has grown up, there’s no limit as to what else this could be converted in to: doll’s house, market stall, closet…the possibilities are endless.

Have you hacked a Billy Bookcase to serve as something other than a bookcase? Do share your creation with us.

NOTE: Copyright of the images belong to the respective writers.