DIY

This IKEA bathroom vanity hack is the perfect solution for small bathrom storage and countertop space. Learn how to hack the IKEA Silveran.

Like many bathrooms in old homes, our upstairs hall bathroom is small!  We just renovated it (check it out in this 1920’s bathroom renovation post), and knew we had to work in as much storage and countertop space as we could, while getting the period-correct look we wanted. 

That’s where our IKEA bathroom vanity hack comes in! 

We hacked the IKEA Silveran sink cabinet and turned it into the perfect bathroom vanity and bathroom storage solution for a small bathroom! 

This IKEA bathroom storage hack might be perfect for your small bathroom, or it might inspire you to modify a different IKEA piece for your bathroom! 

NOTE: As of 2024 the Silveran line has been discontinued, but this IKEA bathroom cabinet could be a good substitute!

There are so many possibilities if you think creatively about how to use IKEA furniture in your space.

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Before I show you what we did here, I want to thank Marti at Project Palermo (also a Chicago girl!), who previously posted an IKEA Silveran hack, and who gave me the inspiration to also hack this piece! 

Although my hack is slightly different from hers, she definitely deserves credit for being the hacking pioneer!

OK, so anyway, I desperately needed a shallow depth vanity to fit this tight spot next to the console sink, and my Google searches revealed the Silveran. 

At just 9 7/8″ deep, it was the perfect fit!  It comes just like this – white, and with no legs or countertop.  It’s super basic, and meant to work with legs and a sink you purchase separately from IKEA! 

When assembled, it doesn’t even have a back! 

We started by cutting a piece of plywood to fit the back and the bottom, and used my brad nailer to secure both pieces into place. 

TIP: Some of the nails went in crookedly and poked out in places we didn’t want.  No problem! We used a metal file to sand and smooth them, making them a non-issue.

We also secured the back part of the cabinet with the wall mounting hardware provided with the sink cabinet.

Once the back and bottom were mounted to the vanity, we attached these 6″ unfinished wood table legs using the corresponding furniture leg mounting plates. 

We initially attached these 9″ legs, but they were too tall and made the vanity quite unsteady, so I went back and got 6″ legs instead.  Those worked much better! 

Next, we attached trim pieces along the bottom front and sides, where the plywood meets the Silveran cabinet.  We used wood glue only for this! 

Once that dried, we attached trim pieces at the joint of the back plywood and the cabinet, also in order to give a more finished appearance. 

While the glue on those trim pieces dried, I ran up to Sherwin-Williams and got my own custom IKEA white paint color made!  I brought one of the pre-finished doors with me and they color matched it.  Brilliant! 

I got to work priming and painting all of the newly-added unfinished wood pieces, and was so happy that the white was a super close match to the original finish of the Silveran cabinet. 

Because of that, I left the original cabinet the color it came to me, and just painted the pieces we added.  Less work = happier me.

Although the Silveran came with an interior shelf, it was shallower depth than the cabinet, and not very functional.  Because of that, I cut pre-finished Home Depot shelving to size and used that instead.  

I added some cute blue and white ceramic knobs, and then the final step was getting a custom countertop made!

My contractor took the measurements to his “guy” and had a quartz scrap cut to size. He added it to the hacked Silveran vanity and got it into place in the bathroom.  It is perfect for this tight bathroom spot! 

TIP:  Our contractor fastened the Silveran to the wall for maximum stability.  Because he had to drill through the wall tile, we saved extra wall tiles so that if we ever decide to remove our Silveran vanity, we can replace the wall tiles with perfectly-matched tile.

It gives us just what we need in here – a place to store necessary supplies and a spot to set things while primping and cleaning up.  🙂

The perfect small bathroom storage solution! 

Although this particular IKEA bathroom vanity hack might not be the perfect bathroom storage solution for your space, I hope it gives you some inspiration and ideas on how to modify IKEA furniture to fit your needs! 

Don’t be scared – just get started and figure things out as you go along.  We made about four separate trips to Home Depot for this project because we modified our plan as we went along.  🙂

You May Like This IKEA Bar Cart Hack, Too! 

One of the most rewarding DIY projects my husband and I have completed is building a fire pit in our family’s tiny backyard.  Spending time together relaxing, roasting marshmallows, and eating way too many s’mores is the perfect way to enjoy the yard.  It was not a difficult project, and I can’t wait to show you how to build a backyard fire pit of your own!

Supplies Needed to Build a Backyard Fire Pit

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Fire Pit Supplies:

• 36″ Galvanized Metal Fire Ring
• Landscape bricks (we used approximately 65 3″ x 8.2″ Mini Flagstone Wall bricks from Lowes)
• DAP DynaGrip Adhesive
• Caulk Gun
• Paver base
• Paver sand
• Pea gravel

Tools:

• Tamper
• Level (long length)
• Hammer
• Mallet
• Chalk
• Knife

Optional:

• Landscape Weed Barrier Fabric
• Netting Staples

How to Build a Fire Pit in Your Backyard

Before Building a Backyard Fire Pit – Things to Consider

Before you build a fire pit in your backyard, there are a few things to take into consideration.  The first is whether there are any buried cables in the area that you need to be careful of when digging. 

The second is if your city, town, village, whatever has any codes or regulations that will impact your project. 

And the third is whether your fire pit will negatively impact any neighbors (smoke sensitivities, etc.).  Think about all of this before beginning work to ensure a happy fire pit experience!

Phase One: Clear the Land

Once you have those things figured out, the first step in all of this is to clear out the area where you’re placing the fire pit.  As you can see from this picture, we had a lot of plants (namely, giant hosta, which are difficult to remove), to clear.  

Once the plants were removed, we got to work raking up the area and getting the ground level.  The kids got involved in this part of the project, which was fun!  

We used our level to make sure we got the ground as flat and as even as we could, and then we laid down the landscape weed barrier fabric to prevent vegetation (like those darn hosta), from growing up around our eventual fire pit.  

Next, we figured out where we wanted the fire pit, and used chalk to make a circle several inches wider than the galvanized fire ring.  Then we cut that circle out of the landscape barrier.  

You might be wondering why we used a galvanized fire ring in our fire pit construction, when many other fire pit tutorials do not use one.  The main reason is that we wanted our fire pit to be extra durable, and also for the landscape bricks not to get charred by the flames. 

One other benefit of using the fire ring is that you can purchase accessories, like grill grates and fire pit screens, that fit perfectly over the fire ring. 

Finally, we also thought it made it easier to create a perfect circle with the landscape bricks.  While this added a little extra cost to the construction, it was worth it in our minds.

Phase Two: Preparing the Ground for Landscape Bricks

The next step was to fill in the circle with paver base.  Once that was poured, my husband got to work with the tamper, pounding it down and getting a level surface that was slightly lower than the surrounding ground.

Next, we poured paver sand around the perimeter of the circle – so where the galvanized fire ring and the landscape bricks would sit.  We again used the tamper to make that paver sand flat.

Then we placed the galvanized fire ring into the paver sand, using a mallet to pound it into the paver sand, paver base, and ground ever so slightly, and we laid our first row of landscape bricks around the fire ring. 

NOTE: it’s important to leave a space of about 2.5″ between the fire ring and the landscape bricks because if you place the landscape bricks right against the ring, by the time you get to the top row of landscape bricks, they will be too close to the fire ring and will be jutting out farther than your base row of bricks.  You will have to disassemble and start over. 

(Prior to gluing our bricks together, we stacked all four rows to see how this would work, and it didn’t!  That’s how we knew to put that space between the fire ring and the landscape bricks at the bottom.)

Once the first row of landscape bricks was laid, it was time to move onto the next row.  We used DAP DynaGrip adhesive to hold our bricks together.  We simply applied it to the stones and pressed them down, making sure to stagger them rather than laying them directly one on top of the other.  

We repeated this process two more times, making our fire pit four rows of landscape bricks high.  Note that once the landscaping went in, the first row of bricks was essentially “underground.”  

We added inexpensive pea gravel inside the fire pit, and with that, our backyard fire pit was complete!

Over the following weeks, I spent time landscaping around the area to make it look nicer. 

This project took us about 8 hours to complete, and that included ripping out all the pre-existing landscape and running to Home Depot a few times for extra supplies. 

At the end of the day I can honestly say that if you’ve ever thought about adding a fire pit to your backyard, you should go for it!  It brings a huge element of fun to your outdoor space and is a wonderful memory maker for your family and friends.  

I’d appreciate it if you’d pin this post to help others find out how to build a backyard fire pit!  

Once you’ve done that, come over and roast a marshmallow with me!  🙂

-Bre