Savvy homeowner shows ‘best Ikea hack yet' as she saves almost £2k on cheap LED shelving & elevates it using £3 lights

Scottish Sun

a day ago

DRAB TO FAB Savvy homeowner shows 'best Ikea hack yet' as she saves almost £2k on cheap LED shelving & elevates it using £3 lights
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A SAVVY homeowner has been hailed a genius after sharing what fans are calling the 'best IKEA hack yet".
Gemma Markland, a home renovator who shares her stunning transformations on TikTok under Markland Home, wowed viewers with her ultra-chic built-in shelving display made entirely from budget buys.
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A Savvy homeowner showed off her 'best Ikea hack yet'
Credit: Tiktok/@themarklandhome
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She saved almost £2,000 creating her own built-in bookcase
Credit: Tiktok/@themarklandhome
Using two BAGGEBO bookcases from IKEA, which start from just £25 a pop, Gemma built a sleek and stylish LED shelving feature that looks like it came straight out of a designer showroom.
She carefully positioned the flat-pack shelves side-by-side, then used thin wooden boards to frame around the units, giving them a high-end, custom-built finish.
After securing everything in place, she painted the entire unit, including the added trim, so it blended seamlessly into the wall.
To take the look to the next level, she added a clever lighting trick that set social media alight.
The final result was a luxe LED shelving unit that looks worth thousands, for just a fraction of the cost.
'Everyone's been asking about the lights,' she said in a follow-up video.
'They're from Amazon, just £3 each. You peel the stickers off the back and pop them into the shelves exactly where you want them.'
The tiny lights are USB-chargeable, so no wiring is needed, and come with a motion sensor setting to save battery.
The lights come in warm white, neutral white or cool white.
'They're even dimmable. It's made this space look so much more luxurious.'
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And she's not wrong. Similar built-in shelving features with LED lighting can cost upwards of £2,000 from furniture specialists, while even cheaper pre-lit versions retail for around £800.
By DIY-ing the project, Gemma has saved herself hundreds and won plenty of fans online.
'I love this,' one viewer gushed.
Another added: 'This looks so beautiful and creative.'
A third wrote: 'Stunning, it looks really expensive.'
Gemma's viral IKEA hack proves you don't need a big budget to create a high-end look, just a bit of imagination, some clever lighting, and a trip to IKEA.
She's not the only nifty homeowner showing off Ikea hacks.
A mum has given her son's bedroom the ultimate makeover on a budget.
Nichola Ryan was able to give her son's tiny room the ultimate transformation and even make sure he had more space too,
The mum took to social media and posted a photo of her jaw-dropping project on DIY On A Budget, a private Facebook group with 2.2 million members.
The DIY fan showed off the new room which featured navy walls along with a wooden panelled feature wall.
However, the room was so small that it was difficult for the mum to find storage solutions that would fit in it.
Luckily, she stumbled across a hack that meant she could turn the bed into a storage unit as well.
Instead of buying a brand new bedframe for the transformation, she instead headed to Ikea to pick up a Kallax unit.
The cubed storage unit costs £50 and the mum picked up two of them to turn it into the bedframe.
Elsewhere, a clever shopper explained how she took advantage of Ikea's Buyback scheme and managed to get £164.50 back for a set of drawers she purchased two years ago.