Is this the easiest IKEA hack out there? Quite possibly! Ok, so you will need a few bits and bobs along the way, but trust me, it'll be worth it! What we're talking about is how to add castors to your Kallax unit.

I'm sure you know the one - deep, square cubbies for storage, and available in a heap of different configurations and finishes, 

 is one of the most versatile pieces of flat pack furniture out there. Now, I can't say I'm the first person to have this idea, but I want to sell you on why it's such a good one. Adding castors to your Kallax is going to do three things:

Make it look more expensive. Furniture with legs and feet which raise it off the ground always looks more premium than something sitting flush on the floor.

Change the style of your unit. Castors have an amazing ability to give an industrial feel to furniture, and there are so many different options out there to choose from!

Make it more practical. Anything that will help you easily move a heavy item of furniture around is a win in my book!

IKEA actually used to sell castors specifically for the Kallax series, but honestly they weren't that attractive! I chose these 

 and they are seriously good quality, and come in a range of sizes and finishes, too.

If you are adding castors to a wide Kallax unit, I recommend you use six - one in each corner and two in the middle. A smaller unit will be fine with just four - one in each corner.

I also suggest you think carefully about the style of the castors. Do you want them to blend in with your Kallax unit, or stand out? There are loads of different styles out there so really think about the impact those different options might have on the finished look and feel of the unit.

You can also think about how you might configure your furniture - it will be so easy to move around when on castors, that you can really have fun and play around with your room layout!

The most important thing to note when doing this is to 

 use an electric drill. I repeat, put away the power tools! A lot of IKEA units, like the Kallax, are made from a combination of particle board and a honeycomb paper structure (great for making the items lightweight!). Using an electric drill will shred the inside and you won't be able to get a secure fastening. It's very easy to screw straight into the board using a regular screw driver, and you'll get a really secure fit if you don't force it too tightly. I would also recommend using a washer with each screw, too.

Finally, don't forget to work out where you want your castors to be before you start screwing them in! Place them where you want them and use a ruler or tape measure to make sure they're evenly spaced.

This is such a good looking hack, easily making your units look that bit more premium, but is also so practical. We have several plug sockets behind both these units and it's dead easy to just slide the units out the way without having to take anything off.

Easy Peasy Kallax Hack

When we first viewed our house in Summer 2021, there were two things that immediately hit me as we looked around: this space is amazing... and everything is so 

! The former owners had clearly loved their house, it was in great nick, but it hadn't had a refresh in twenty or so years and the palette for the whole house really reflected that. Dark brown woods, brown carpets, orangey brown tiles, pale brown walls, all set against a backdrop of magnolia. So not my taste! But as with many things in life, I had to be patient. There were more offensive things to deal with first than brown and magnolia walls!

But as time wore on I really found myself resenting the living room. It just didn't feel right, and I think it's a room that needs to work well - after all, it's one of the rooms we spend the most time in! I struggled with how gloomy the room felt, with the horrible old curtains, and I was finding it increasingly hard to make our old furniture work for us in the new room. Eventually you come to a point where enough is enough!

The main focus for this living room refresh was that it had to be cheap. In the next year or so we are planning a large rear extension to the house which will have a big impact on the entire downstairs layout, so I didn't want to commit to spending a ton of money that might eventually go to waste, so I broke the space down and really thought about the things that weren't working:

These three elements were my big crunch points. Yes, I'd love a new sofa and would 

 new flooring, but that was always going to be out of budget. I wanted to focus on things I 

 could make a big change - so first things first, paint!

My main sources of inspiration were an image from The Little Green Paint Company (left) and one from 

 on Instagram (right). Both of these blue interiors feel so fresh and bright yet warm and inviting at the same time. It's been said a hundred times before, but remember to get tester pots when you're redecorating, and apply them in large patches in different areas of the room. It's so important to see how a colour looks at different times of the day and in different parts of your room.

Lighting was another big issue I had in the room. I absoluted loathed the browny/black chandelier lighting that was in both the living room and the adjoining dining room, but again, could not justify splurging on expensive light fittings when realistically that's an element I know will end up changing following the extension. So I bought a couple of my go to 

. A paper lampshade is always a safe and neutral option for softly diffusing light and not being an attention grabber, and at only £2 each it's hard to go wrong! I also found this great 

 which at £55 is a great price as it's a dupe on a classic style that you can easily spend £££s on! 

The final issue I really wanted to resolve was the fireplace. I'm not a big fan of a fake fireplace in the first place, let alone this not-working silver a gold beauty! But again, without spending heaps to replace the flooring I knew we couldn't remove it. A roll of masking tape and a can of 

 later and I think the fireplace is looking as good as it can!

So with a colour chosen, the fireplace updated, and the lighting in hand, the last thing for me to do was sort out those finishing touches! I created a simple concept board to put all the colours in my head together and then got shopping to put it all together! 

Overall, this room refresh has cost less than £200, which includes the cost of new soft furnishings, lighting, 5 litres of paint, as well as extras like new light fittings and plug sockets. I shopped around the house for existing pieces, like art work and decor, to finsh the room off and give it that extra warmth and loveliness.

If you would like help refreshing a room, have a look at 

! I'd be so happy to help you update your space!

Living Room Refresh

Let's talk cushions. My absolute hero home-decor item. I find it impossible to be in a home shop and not emerge with a giant bag of squishy goodness when I leave. Yep, I'm addicted! Yes, cushions are squishy and beautiful, but they're also one of the simplest and easiest ways to update your living room or bedroom, or any other space where textiles are involved! Sometimes you just need a freshen up, or might be looking to change with the seasons. Just changing the cushions on your bed or sofa has a huge imapact on the way your room feels.

Even if all you do is change a colour, it can have a big impact - you can go from bright and fresh to cool and calming in seconds. 

 that you can only get when you're cuddled up surrounded by fabric and texture (I could write a whole seperate post about blankets!) - maybe some of those cushions may end up on the floor, but the option for snuggling is, in my mind, vital! 

To make sure your bed, sofa, or other cosy corner looks as good as it feels, I tend to follow a few simple guidlines to make sure your space is just that extra bit enticing.

Stick to a colour palette. For a really simple and classic look it's always good to choose pairs (or groups) of the same cushion and add your extras in a similar colour palette. This will help create balance and ensure your cosy additions will harmonize in your space.

Balance your patterns. If you love pattern and texure, again choose similar colour palettes, but play around with the scale of your patterns. Mix and match large scale patterns with textiles that have smaller details.

Once you've found the colours and patterns you like, play around with size and shape. A range of cushions in different shapes and sizes will always looks good and will allow you to 

 your textiles and develop a really inviting sense of comfort.

 has used a large accent cushion with colours of yellow, pink and pale blue to tie in with the smaller cushions and to compliment the deep bluey-teal of the sofa. I also love how the pink velvet beauty at the front has those super-cute tassels which again pick out that rich yellow tone!

 has layered up a group of warm natural cushions - they all blend together seamlessly as that tonal colour palette matches the rest of the decor in the room. For ultimate relaxation you can't beat a palette of warm greys, browns and creams.

I also find that changing your cushions can be the easiest way to try out a new trend without committing to the financial implications of redecorating a whole room or buying new furniture. So many cushion covers can easily be taken off the inserts and stored away for when you want to swap them in or out again. I know I have a whole stash of 

 in different colours tucked away in the airing cupboard for when I want to change up a room.

If you're looking to change up your space, or want to jump on board and try out Meg or Karen's style, I thought I'd finish up my cushion-appreciation-post by rounding up some of my favourite cushion covers. Get cosy and enjoy! 

A Love Letter to Cushions

I feel like we've heard the term 'working from home' A LOT recently, am I right? For some people this has been a massive adjustment, trying to find a deskspace, battling with dodgy internet signals, and having to take calls whilst shushing children/pets/partners/washing machines. Finding that perfect work environment is hard for sure!

For my husband, working from home has been the norm for the past five years, but it was only when everyone else was doing it that he really took stock of the space he had, and the space he wanted. In our previous home he was content (ish) to work from our old Victorian attic - it had been renovated beautifully and had bags of charm and character whilst doubling as our guest bedroom. When we moved to our current home, we realised that he could have a room that was entirely his, and so the project to create his ideal office space began.

The room in the house we chose is a large, north facing room, but sorely lacking in any personality. To put it nicely, it was gross, and only got worse when the layers of wallpaper were stripped off to reveal lime green everywhere. Yikes.

But I sort of knew immediately what I wanted to do with the space for him. The main thing my husband needed was storage - don't we all!? We also had a lot of existing 'stuff' that would need to get factored into the room, as the budget was fairly tight. Incorporating our old sofa bed, his guitars and music equipment, an existing Kallax unit, and the very old laminate floor, I put together a rough scheme that he loved.

It was pretty easy going, with the exeption of the wall paper stripping (my least favourite DIY job) and getting the cork wall up (that needs its own blog post entirely!), and both me and my husband are dead chuffed with the finished space.

It's so important to consider the layout of an office space - where your desk will go and how your screen/s might be impacted by natural light, access to plug sockets, and obviously the size and shape of the room you're working with. For us, we found that having the desk adjacent to the window created a much greater sense of space in the room, and allowed the cork wall to zone the working area. 

We placed the sofa bed against the wall opposite the window to ensure that if we needed to open it up for guests, we wouldn't have to rearrange the room. We also chose the wall facing the desk to be the storage/gallery wall. It gave us the most amount of space for our old Kallax unit, alongside a new one, and an entire wall free for the gallery we had planned. We placed the Kallax units on 

 to make sure they could easily be shifted to access the plug sockets behind them. I think having somewhere, big or small, that is carefully considered to meet your needs as a dedicated space if you work from home for long periods of time is so important. We spend so much time at work, it makes sense to be in a place you love. Chuffed to call my husband my first happy customer. 

Blog

Want to know more?