Our somewhat Ikea “hacked” entertainment center and an honest Ikea besta review

Hey guys, it’s been pretty busy this past weekend as we celebrated Mr. J’s 28th birthday. It was an unexpectedly fun weekend, because he was actually scheduled to work overtime the whole weekend and at the last-minute on Friday, he heard the good news! I think I might have possibly physically jumped for joy while washing the dishes when I saw his text. It was a nice surprise, especially being stuck at home with a sick son for the last half of the week. It was the best news I could have heard at that moment.

It was a nice break, but I’m back and wanted to share our entertainment center with you! It is a fairly large cabinet, but even for my small home, it actually works really well. Does it look like one large piece of furniture..? Well, it’s actually 2 identical ikea cabinets connected together to make “one” large cabinet. Would you call it a hack.. Why not?! LOL

Now, we actually had one of these cabinets already. But we were in the market for one bigger to better fit the needs of the space and better anchor the tv. After much thought and not seeing one within our budget, we decided to just get another cabinet just like it to make one big media center. We just added brackets from home depot to the back to attach the 2 cabinets together. They can just as easily be removed to use the cabinets separately if we wanted to. But, it’s the perfect size for this wall so I doubt we’ll be doing that any time soon.

Have you ever felt like because your home is on the smaller side, you shouldn’t buy large items for the home. Well, in some cases this is very true.. For example, we bought a dining table that clearly made the room all table and no space for people to sit. LOL. That had everything to do with me rushing and just being overly excited. And it did cost me. Lesson learned, right?! So learn from my hasty, foolish ways and measure-measure-measure! Anyway, with that said, this isn’t always true. A lot of small items in a space can actually make a space seem crowded, smaller and cluttered. Not a good look right?? So just be mindful of that when you’re decorating and getting new furniture. I can be an impulse buyer, so I have to tell myself this too!

Our cabinet carries everything and more, seriously. You would think it would take up the whole room with all that we’re able to store in there. On the left is all our board/card games,along with paperwork that I need within reach on the bottom shelf. On the right is all our movies/video games and gaming controllers. I chose these 2 end doors to be covered completely to tuck away and hide what would look unsightly with all the busyness going on in there. The 2 middle doors, on the other hand are glass faced so we can see the dvd player and gaming systems when it’s in use. Could you imagine if it was all glass doors. It would look so cluttered, no matter how organized it was.

The great thing is that though it is large, it isn’t very deep, which is perfect for this space. Being right by the front door, you don’t want a piece of furniture that sticks out so far and get in the way of a guest’s line of sight. Or in the walk way of course, if you can help it. And because this holds so much, I really don’t need much more storage for this room to function well. Honestly, before we got this cabinet, this room was really hard to keep clean. Crazy what one (2 put together in this case) piece of furniture can do for one’s sanity! LOL!

So, on to what you might be wondering.. What do I really think of this Ikea Besta cabinet. Well, here are the pros: I have to say, I do love it! It might not be a show stopper with its looks. But let me tell you, we’ve owned this for about 2 years or so now, and it has held up well and served its purpose excellently. The clean lines of the cabinet makes it suitable in many different types of relaxed home designs. They also have different finishes and colors of wood so you can easily find one to suit your needs. The depth was perfect for our little home. It was fairly simple to build. I did this by myself with minimal help from my husband.. With this line, you can build different types of cabinets, customizing it to fit the needs of your home. It’s personalizing capable! Did I just make that phrase up.. Maybe. You never know with me! LOL. These doors, legs and handle pulls were my choice. Although, they do have some preset cabinets to choose from. It even has wall attachments if you choose to use it as a wall cabinet. At the price point, this really couldn’t be beat. I also noticed that often Ikea has these discounts if you have the Ikea family card with them, which is what we did on top of an Ikea sale that was going on. So it was well worth buying 2.

The cons of this Ikea cabinet would have to be a not so stand out piece. It is very simple in design, which is why I love it but for someone who is looking for pottery barn, rustic and real wood, heirloom type pieces, this isn’t it. Would I love to have one of those, yes, maybe some day when the kids are bigger! But this cabinet is perfect for my small kids who I don’t worry too much about, as they go in and out of the cabinets grabbing what they need. Now if this piece was 3 times the price, I’d think twice about letting them. One other thing, is every now and then I do have to tighten a few screws on the cabinet hinges to get the cabinets to be perfectly aligned again. Not sure if its cause my kids are rough with it or if it’s the cabinets problem. But, honestly, for me, it’s not a deal breaker.

Well, what do you think of our entertainment area? Doesn’t it seem kinda crazy having a cabinet this big in my little home? Crazy enough, it actually works. In fact, I think this gives the room an illusion that it’s bigger than it actually is. I kinda love it! Everyone who’s come over after we changed to 2 cabinets has said the room looks bigger. I just smile because I know it’s all thanks to this bad boy right here that tucks everything away and keeps the room tidy.. Well as much as possible with toddlers running around all day, of course! HAHA! Well, hope you’re enjoying your week friends and hope to hear from you!;) If you loved this space or found it helpful, or just feeling extra kind today, show me some love and pin a photo on your pinterest or share on instagram/ Facebook and/or twitter and tag me!! I wanna check you out! Thanks for coming by!