Billy Olsbo 117cm Glass Door

Materials: BILLY OLSBO Panel/glass door, Saw – preferably with fine teeth, pencil, square (again, any kind will do)

Description: IKEA only makes the BILLY OLSBO door with a wood frame in 212cm (83in) and 52cm (20in) lengths. The 117cm (46in) BILLY OLSBO door only comes with a wood panel – no glass. So what do you do when you want a 117cm door with a wood frame, but IKEA doesn’t make one? (And because the aluminum framed glass doors just don’t look right on a wood bookcase) You hack the 212cm BILLY OLSBO glass/panel door to make a BILLY OLSBO 117cm glass door.

1. Take a square (I used a combination square) and mark a line across the two side pieces at the bottom (the wood panel side) of the middle piece of wood that separates the glass panel from the wood panel.

2. Use your saw (I used a 5 1/4″ circular saw with plywood blade) to cut the side pieces of wood on the wood side of the middle wood piece. You only need to cut through the side piece on each side, you don’t have to cut across the whole panel.

3. Pull the wood panel away from the side with the glass panel.

4. File the edges smooth.

That’s it, you’re finished (unless you want to get really tricky and try to stain the bottom where you made your cuts, but who is really going to see that anyway?) Just mount the doors to the cabinet, and now you have glass doors for your bookcase that IKEA decided they didn’t want to make for some reason…

~ Mike, Pittsburgh, PA