Sliding Bookcase Doors KALLAX hack to divide your rooms

I replaced single-glazed sliding doors that divided the sitting room and dining room with a sliding KALLAX bookcase. For one “door”, I used two 2×2 cubes and one 2×1 unit.

As we already owned 4 separate KALLAX 2×2 cubes and they seemed to be exactly the same width as the internal doors, we thought it might be possible to stack them.

With one additional 2×1 KALLAX they almost matched the height of the internal doors.

Sliding KALLAX bookcase doors in closed position

First, still a work in progress but let us show you how it looks from the dining room, when the units are pushed together to close up the doorway.

And the units pushed apart to enter the living room.

We can access the storage cubes from both sides — from the dining or living room — which is so very useful.

What I like most is, when viewed from the living room, when closed, it looks almost like a built-in unit.

IKEA item used:

2×2 KALLAX units x 4
1×2 KALLAX units x 2

Other materials:

3M mounting tape
50x50mm mending plates
30mm casters x 8
Sliding door rail system

How did we hack the KALLAX into doors

I figured four 30mm fixed casters would sufficiently take the weight of each stack. 

These were purchased for £1.75 each (x8) and screwed in place. 

I placed a 2×2 KALLAX unit on top of the casters unit and held it in place with 3M mounting tape. Then, for additional security, I got some square fixing plates 50x50mm and screwed them to the joints of each KALLAX.

The final 2×1 unit was added on top and the sliding wheel bracket screwed to the top. I repeated this for the second “door”.

I still need to buy some battens about 40-40mm by 10mm to make an L shaped shroud to hide the rail. 

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Unladen the sliding bookcase doors move quite easily on carpet but as can be seen on the photo, the carpet is hideous.  

We replaced it with a wood laminate floor. And it rolls without issue.

As we wanted to be able to put books on either side of the rooms I took apart 4 LEKMAN boxes and stuck them together with some more double-sided 3M tape.

I placed these halfway into a cube and taped them in place. This lets enough light through and is sturdy enough to prevent books being pushed through. 

I did consider the official grey dividers but they aren’t deep enough. (Very strange design choice).

The only disappointment was that the 2x1s are slightly slimmer than the 2×2. Other than that, it works like a charm.

~ by Andy Vickers

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