Laundry Room Update: Ikea Akurum Cabinet

We finally have an update to share!!  After 3 trips to Ikea (one to look at the cabinet in person, one to purchase the cabinet, and one to go back and get the suspension rail to hang the cabinet), we finally have taken down the nasty, old shelf and hung the beautiful white, glass front cabinet!  I really have to say this is 98% thanks to my husband.  He really had to hang in there on this project.

Here is the cabinet we purchased.

Stock photo from Ikea.com.  Can purchase this cabinet HERE.

If you don't remember what the old shelf looked like let me grudgingly remind you...

Not pretty what so ever...

So yesterday we took down the shelf and partical board braces (which shredded as we pulled them out of the wall) and this is what we were left with.

Gross right?!?!  All those wholes that look like black mold are nail and screw holes!  So I filled them all, let the spackle dry for about 30 minutes, then sanded the entire unpainted area and along the edges were the yellow paint meets the unpainted wall.

 MUCH BETTER!

We thought we would let the paint dry a couple of hours before installing the cabinet so while the paint was drying, Adam put the cabinet together.  As we went to install the cabinet, we hit a halting stop.  Apparently with these cabinets, you also need to purchase the suspension rail.  I searched and searched and searched while Adam searched and searched and searched for ways around NOT having to go back to Ikea and deal with afternoon Houston traffic but in the end, everyone said BUY THE RAIL!

So back to Ikea we went to purchased this suspension rail.

Stock photo from Ikea.com.  Can purchase the suspension rail HERE.

We are not sure why the IKEA salesman who got the cabinet order ready didn't include or tell us about the suspension rail but if you buy these cabinets to be hung on the wall you MUST, I repeat MUST buy the suspension rail.  You will also need to purchased screws to use to hang the rail.

So to recap, for the Akurum cabinet we purchased you need these pieces from Ikea (the salesman should remember to get everything for you but for your piece of mind, this is what you need) and these other tools/hardware:

• IKEA Akurum cabinet surround
• IKEA Lindigo glass door (there are 2 other door options for this cabinet)
• IKEA Integral hardware
• IKEA Akurum Suspension Rail
• Hacksaw to cut the suspension rail to the desired length (1/4" shorter than the cabinet frame)
• Screws to hang the suspension rail (see below)
• Screwgun
• Level
• Tape Measure
• Pencil

Because the cabinet we bought was smaller than the width between the wall studs, we hung the rail using 2 plastic anchors with screws in the drywall (one on each end of the rail) and one screw in the middle of the rail in the stud.  These are the screws/anchors we purchased from Lowes.

Once you have cut and hung the suspension rail, you just follow the Ikea directions to hang the cabinet.  PS This is a strong man job because even the small cabinet was fairly heavy.  After the cabinet is hung, you add the door.  To hang the door we watched this video from the House Whisper on Youtube called IKEA for dummies. He actually shows you how to build the whole frame (for a different style cabinet, not the Akurum but exact same directions) and then shows you how to attach the door hinges/Integral hardware.

And here it is!

I really am so happy with it and can't wait to finish the last few details of this room to do a final update!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY adventure, and as always, thanks for stopping by!