Garage Sale Redo: The Ikea Trofast Shelf Part 1

It is sort of a heartbreaking day when you realize that your kids toys are taking over your house. When you finally move into a home, you dream of the perfect living room. In my old house, I had the perfect living room---organized, cozy, beautiful:

Of course this picture was before kids and we have moved since then. Our new house (which it is anything but new, try 1970s house) has a horrible layout. I have no place for toy storage, so the living room had to be sacrificed to be both the living room and the toy room. There goes my dream of the perfect living room! 

I decided a few months ago that rather than to fight this battle, I would try to combat it by providing some sort of storage option for the toys. Months ago I built this handy little open toy box  and it has been a lifesaver!

Unfortunately, due to a few awesome deals of Little People and Legos, we are running out of room in the toy box already. 

I have always had plans to add a top unit to this toy box when this time came, something much like this:

source

However, I haven't had the time or the energy (4 weeks till Baby 2.0 is here!)  One day I came across an Ikea Trofast storage unit at a garage sale for $5!

source

I had an idea, let's just throw this on top of the current toy box and use it for the extra storage I was going to build. 

However, when I got home and put it on top of the unit, it looked a little funny.

I think it looks funny because it doesn't match the width of the toy box and the stair-stepped shelving makes it look strange. So I set off to correct the issues and hopefully end up with something that looks like it's a one piece unit.  

I came across this photo on pinterest and thought it was a great idea to add to the sides to make the width match!

source

Anyways, that is my plan. I can't wait to show you the results, but first I will give a little DIY on how to build these side shelves...that you could add to your own Trofast shelf, dresser, or whatever else you can imagine!

Like this post?

Pin It