Ikea Detolf cabinet , UPGRADE !!!

[Derekm88]

I wanted to share a few pics of my upgraded Detolf cabinets I purchased from IKEA, as most of you know he's cabinets alone are great but when you put your own little spin on them the possibilities are in less. First thing I did was I kind of stole the idea from somebody else and just added a little spin to it. You will see I replaced the clear shelves with mirrored shelves, you can get nearest cut from any local glass company anywhere from $10-$20 for each shelf, my advice is to pay cash that way you can work with them a little bit on the price and hopefully get it discounted as much as possible. The second thing I did was an attempt to Hide the wires what I did was purchase a half-inch PVC tubing cut a slit down the middle of each tube measured appropriately painted flat black and stuff them in the corner please see pics for reference. The leading that I purchased was from IKEA and I picked up the LED diodes two lights per shelf and ran the wires through the PVC tubing in the back, again please reference the pics for details. And finally to hide the background I went to a print shop and picked up and it he said of backing that they mostly detail cars with and apply that to the back. I figured a flat black would be the best option for display purposes. I hope you enjoy and I surely hope that these pics help in your own remodeling of these fantastic cabinets ! Please feel free to ask any questions you would like I would love to help anybody out! Thanks for looking , Derek

 

[Hirohawa]

Nice mod!

 

[Luke0312]

Very nice job! Really like the flat black background.

One other area I think the detolfs can be improved is the height, the bottom shelf IMO is too low. I'm in the process of combining two cases into one and raising it. Here's my thread on it: http://www.therpf.com/f12/ikea-display-items-modifications-other-such-things-231160/?highlight=detolf Doesn't yet show how I raised them, but I actually just got the stand built yesterday and sat them on top of it. For a single case, I think it would look best to get some tall baseboard molding, build a simple box about 7/8" (thickness of detolf base) shorter than the baseboard, sit the detolf directly onto the box (don't use the plastic feet), and wrap the baseboard around the box/detolf base. Raising it up around 6" or 7" would do a lot for the looks. You could also add some small crown to the top of the detolf to finish it off. I think a more modern base and crown would work with the detolf versus a traditional style.

Here's a sketch of what I'm talking about:


Just throwing out ideas in case your interested, your case looks good as is.

 

[Derekm88]

Yes ... I like the molding idea , it would add a bit to it ! One thing that I find people doing is using led strip lights along the corners , it really just adds to the clutter of the cabinets and is impossible to hide.