TRONE Up Like a Grown Up!

IKEA Item Hacked: Trones Shoe/Storage Cabinet

The Trones storage system is genius: It’s small-space-friendly. It’s roomy. It’s efficient. Unfortunately, it’s also all kinds of bland plastic.

As a mid-30s gal with a tiny, minimalist apartment, in which I am constantly trying to find the decorative balance between “I have a job” and “I just raided a college dorm” – I needed the size, form and function of the Trones, but I needed it to look like real furniture.

So, I covered the flat(ish) front sections with a cool fabric, then built a wood frame (or most of a frame) to cover the top and sides. Goodbye plastic! Hello funky eclectic storage thingy.

Here’s how….

Fabric Covers

Remove the drawer-ish part of the Trones units from the part that mounts to the wall.

Take a fabric of your choice, and cut a piece that is slightly bigger than the front, mostly flat part of one of the drawer pieces – but leave about 1/2” allowance on the sides and bottom, and about 1” allowance on the top. I sized this by laying the front “face” of the drawer directly down on the fabric, and drawing around it onto the fabric the size I wanted to cut.

Using a foam brush, “paint” a layer of Mod-Podge (available at any craft store) directly onto the flat(ish) front “face” of the drawer.

Lay/stick the fabric on the top Mod-Podged part, flatten out any wrinkles or bubbles, then brush another layer of Mod-Podge on top of the fabric to paste it down.

Wrap the fabric around the edges, and repeat the steps above. The fabric will stick best if you paint a layer of Mod-Podge directly onto the plastic first, then press the fabric down, then paste another layer of Mod-Podge over the fabric.

Repeat on the second drawer, and so on if you are using more units.

Once the drawer parts are dry, pop them into the pieces that mount on the wall. When you’re ready, follow the instructions that came with the Trones set to mount them on the wall

Wood Frame

(or most of a frame… I didn’t make a bottom piece…)

Measurements: Reminder – I only used two of the three Trones units that came in the set. If you use more or less, or a different arrangement, adjust your measurements accordingly.
1 Horizontal piece: 6.5” x 42” (3/4” thick)
2 Vertical pieces: 6.5” x 16”(also 3/4” thick): note – this will hang a bit below the bottom of the Trones units…. If you want them flush, or plan to add a bottom section to your frame, you may need to adjust measurements. Also, if the wood you use is different than 3/4” thick – you will need to adjust your measurements accordingly.

Amateur tip: I had the wonderful folks at Lowes cut the wood for me.

Sand the wood to your liking.

I used a drill and 1.5” screws to attach the horizontal board to the two vertical boards in a bench-like shape (attaching the vertical ones to the underside of the horizontal one). For some extra support, I also added some flat angle brackets to the back.

After it was assembled, I stained with one coat of oil-based stain, and finished with two coats of polyurethane.

Once it was dry, I added some of those little plastic stick-on bumpers (often for the back of picture frames) to the back to protect my wall where the wood would bump up against it.

Lastly, I just dropped the wood frame on top of my wall-mounted Trones units – and tah-dah!

~ by Stephanie

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