DIY Window Seat with Ikea Nordli Hack

hello some of you guys might have seen my diy ikea bangkok video so this time i'm sharing another ikea diy project for window seat you can also use it for dining room bank head breakfast nook or any other bench seating project i use the ikea nordly 2 drawer chest and hack into a super long window seat for my bedroom because i have some awkward empty space in this bedroom and also i would like to have more clothes storage to contain my mess i'm planning to diy some cushions for this bench but for now i'm using a chunky runner rug and just fold it in half to serve as a cushion this project is actually really affordable compared to hiring out each of those units cost about 60 dollars so with four of those and all the actual materials to make this customization happen we got the whole project down under four hundred dollars i'll link my blog post with the detailed instructions in the description i'll also include the materials that use for this project before we get started i want to give a quick summary to the modifications i did i raised the height of the dresser so it serves more like a furniture piece and fills the space a little bit more i also create a custom book nook to fill in the extra space i have and i create a custom bench on the top and added a outlet box on the batch top now let's get started with the project i started by assembling the ikea nortley drawer units following the ikea instruction menu i assembled the frame and the drawers separately [Music] then i place all four of them in my bedroom to get a general idea of how they will fit in the space because my window seat will be well to well i had to remove part of the box molding and the baseboard [Music] then i started to build a base for this bench i used 2x4 to build a long rectangles that ikea drawer can sit on i used a crack jig to make pocket holes and connected all the pieces together you can see that it fits my entire wall snuggly then i attach the 2x4 base to my wall stud by the way i didn't remove the baseboard on the back wall because i plan to leave some space there for my power outlet because i'm not using the dresser unit which has a top on the bottom i created my own bottom for the northerly drawer frame so that i can use it to attach to the 2x4 base i used some 1x5 boards that i got from hardware store cut them to size and then use a nail gun to staple them to the drawer frame it also resists the height of those drawers and that i can use a baseboard to cover them all i then put all the units on top of the base and it's looking pretty good on the right side of the space i have a big closet door so the remaining space needs to have a shallower depth because of that i used the space for a small bookcase i attached all the northly dresser units together by one inch screws i also made sure to clamp them together so that their top is aligned which makes it easier to attach a benchtop later i have a wall outlet that is right behind one of the drawer units so i created a notch on the back frame and i found this power extension product from amazon that doesn't take much depth which is perfect for my case i'll make sure to share a link in the description for this one so basically i'm using it as a power strip right beneath my bench top that is very accessible and i'll share how i do that in a little bit [Music] now it's time to add the bench top we used two 2 by 12 boards that are 12 feet long reason we used the 12 feet long board was because my bench will be 11 half feet long and i want it to look continuous if your bench is less than eight feet another great way to do it is by joining two sheets of plywood together and then using a wood veneer to seal the edge i did it for my home office desk which i'll leave a link below if you are looking for the instructions so for this case we joined two boards together with wood glue and also added pocket screws to every foot of it and then we patch it up using some wood putty and sanding the surface we gave it a fuel coat of white paint i also cut out a rectangle shape for the outlet this is what it looks like after we added the top to the window seat we actually didn't attach the bench top because it was super snug so it is not really moving at all but you can attach them together by using some out brackets i cut out some baseboard to size using a miter saw then attach the baseboard using black nails with a 2x4 base and the boards that are attached to the drawer unit my four and a half inch base board covers them perfectly if you are looking for a lower height bench seat such as using it as a dining banquet you can use two by two base or skip it all together and just keeping the three quarter inch board at the bottom [Music] my house is really old so the walls are curved to seal the gap between the bench top and my wall i got some shoe moldings and then i applied some caulk to seal all the gaps i attached them to the bench and the wall except the offline part i also did another layer of paint so everything flows together well also because at the beginning i painted the wrong color and realized it after i installed the bench [Music] before sliding in the drawers i attached the frame to the 2x4 base when i designed the base i made sure that there will be at least one board around the middle of each unit to make it easier to attach later [Music] to sliding the drawers i basically follow the ikea instructions by pulling the track out pushing the drawers in and then engaging the white switch i've made the mistake of not setting the white switch to the off position first and that made it impossible to attach the drawers so make sure that the switch is disengaged before you add the drawer and re-engage once the drawer is in position it does wobble a little bit so don't mistaken the wobble as a switch otherwise the drawer is really easy to install what's nice about the nordly unit is that all the drawers have soft closure which just makes it easier to use i also finished off the boku noku which is looking cohesive with the whole thing moving on to creating an outlet box for the bench seat i cut several pieces of quarter inch plywood and then glued them together using wood glue and clamped them overnight i also created a notch on the left of the box so that the power extension cable can pass through i then slid in the box and place it on top of the notch i created previously on the northly frame this outlet extension comes with some double-sided tape so i just use them to hold everything in [Music] place [Music] for the outlet box cover i use a three-quarter inch thick board and then attach it to the bench using two hinges i also added two small blocks of wood so that the door can sit on top having this outlet on the bench not only letting me still have access to the power that is covered by my storage bench but also makes it convenient to charge my phone or plug in small appliances such as a lamp or a humidifier so this is what the finished ikea northly window seat looks like it has a lot of storage and having drawers just make it so easy to access things within i also got some ikea drawer organizers which fit pretty well inside the drawers [Music] if you are looking for specific measurements and the detailed instructions make sure to check out my blog post linked below and let me know if you have any questions in the comment section [Music] well it was such a fun and rewarding diy project and i love hacking it makes it possible to suit my space and my needs i hope you find this video useful if you're looking to build something similar or looking for ideas to hack ikea northland unit if you are not already make sure to subscribe to my channel i post home decor and diy videos on a regular basis see you next time bye you

Channel: Hydrangea Treehouse

Views: 1,089,696

Rating: 4.9532971 out of 5

Keywords: ikea nordli dresser, ikea nordli, diy bench, ikea bench, ikea bench hack, ikea bench seat with storage, ikea bench seat hack, ikea window seat, ikea hacks diy, diy storage bench, diy banquette bench, diy banquette seating, nordli ikea dresser, nordli drawers review, nordli drawers assembly, nordli drawer installation, how to build a bench seat, diy window seat with storage, diy ikea bench hack, diy ikea bench seat, benchtop power supply diy

Id: h53PIs8lXYU

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021