Hex Tile Ikea Besta Console Hack
I wanted to create something custom and unique that almost anyone could copy without having to have a bunch of skills. You need some skills, but not a bunch.
Call it a console, a media cabinet, a buffet, call it whatever you want as long it’s pretty.
To hack this, you don’t need to be an expert wood worker. For this particular version, you would need to be able to tile…or you would need to be able to pick up the phone and dial a number and find someone to tile it for you, like I did.
Generic storage unit we had before
If the tile you use is not expensive, and you want a custom look, it is still much cheaper to hire someone than it would be to buy a custom console.
Other options to give the top a different look is a cool piece of wood or some funky wallpaper.
How we made this particular console.
Bought a 70” besta console from ikea.
Bought corresponding Ikea doors from semihandmade (the SSS beaded line in white)
Tiled the top and sides (Tile from Mission Stone & Tile)
The process
In order to keep the tile flat and not have it potentially buckle if the console itself became unlevel, we first put james hardie cement backer board on the top and sides. (look close at this pic and you can see the screws and cement board- we lost some pics of the process in a deleting accident.)
Then came the tiling part.
Due to the particular tile we picked and some of the small pieces it had, it would’ve been extremely difficult, if not impossible to to miter the edges at a 45 degree angle to have a true waterfall edge. So we did the next best thing and made sure the pattern lined up.
We used a black schluter strip in black to edge the tile and hide the cement backer board.
We bought legs from pretty pegs in a fun color. We started with 4 legs, but with the weight of the tile, we needed to add 4 more legs in the middle so it didn’t sag in the middle.
These legs were the 17” legs from pretty pegs, which we like the look of better, but it made the console a little too tall for the space, and a little more wobbly than we liked considering this was going to be used for kids toys, and we didn’t want the kids to yank a drawer open and topple it over on them.
If this wasn’t being used by kids a lot, I would’ve felt comfortable keeping them as is. But since it is being used for kids, and we sort of like our kids most of the time, we figured we didn’t want them to die in a freak furniture accident, so we cut the legs shorter. (and by we, I mean my husband).
If pretty pegs doesn’t have a color you like, paint them! They paint really easily! We bought the first 4 in yellow ochre and then by the time we realized we needed 4 more, they weren’t selling yellow anymore, so I ordered some wood ones, and got a custom match at the paint shop and I can barely even tell which leg is which!
We moved it into our house and set pretty things on top and a bunch of ugly plastic toys inside and called it a day.
If you have any questions, ask below in the comments!