Ikea stuva sofa with a custom-sawn pine carpentry panel, by Tjeerd and Maartje

Description by Tjeerd and Maartje

We have had three Stuva bins from Ikea for years. A nice storage container for our vacuum cleaner, all the puzzles and games and more. We wanted the whole thing to fit together a little tighter so that it would really become a sofa. We screwed the individual boxes together from the inside. We then ordered a wooden top from this handy webshop. We screwed the plate on top from the inside. A project that was super easy, less than half an hour of work and gives a beautiful result.

How I made this project

We opted for a thicker variant that looked robust but still looks elegant on top of the containers. We ordered the shelf so that it covers the entire sofa. We planned to install a handle on the drawers, but in practice it turns out that our fingers fit easily between the top and the drawer handle. We decided to keep it that way because we actually really like it that way. Because we have had the containers for such a while, we want to give them a nice lick of paint soon. We are surprised that we were able to give our bank a huge facelift so easily. We should have done this much sooner! Now the challenge is of course to keep it tidy. We have the finish ready, and plan to do this with Skylt lacquer, a lacquer that leaves the natural color of the wood intact as much as possible.

Dimensions of my DIY project