Floating Bookshelves – an IKEA BILLY hack

floating bookshelves IKEA Billy

I love this floating bookshelves, IKEA version.

The BILLY bookcases seem to take on a new lightness when hung on the wall. It gives it an almost library-feel to it.

Also, furniture off the floor is the way to go for me. Makes cleaning so much easier, eh.

floating bookshelves IKEA Billy

Karine Schenkeveld and Erik Roscam Abbing from Rotterdam, The Netherlands turns a $59.99 bookcase into a fancy designer object.

How they made their IKEA BILLY floating bookshelves

They tell me, “All we did was cut off the bottom part of the vertical elements underneath the bottom shelf. Next, we mounted nine steel L-brackets per bookcase to the wall. (Comes up to three per fixed BILLY shelf.) Then, we just mount the BILLY bookshelves on to the brackets.

Pretty simple, but everyone thinks we had these floating bookshelves custom made for us.

Some people are worried that they’ll come off the wall. But come on, there are 18 (!) 8cm (approx 3″) screws per floating bookshelf. And the load is almost completely vertical: no problem.”


You may also like these IKEA BILLY bookshelf hacks

#1 Tall Wall-Like BILLY bookshelves

tall cabinet

Roel needed to add some extra storage space in the living room. They came up with the idea to make a tall cabinet at the head of the table, with a more “wall like” appearance. See their tall cabinet hack.

#2 BILLY is for built-ins

built-in bookshelves

Jeff had a really long wall that needed something to separate the games area from the media area. What better way than to introduce more storage and some built-in bookshelves.

#3 Full BILLY wall

full BILLY wall

When you need to fill an entire wall with shelves, BILLY’s your man or bookcase. See the full BILLY wall.

#4 Daybed reading nook from BILLY bookshelves

daybed reading nook

Jessica shares her IKEA hack — a daybed reading nook — made from 4 BILLY bookcases. It’s amazing how it turned out.


Related: See 14 more IKEA BILLY hacks.