How to Cut an Ikea Wardrobe in Half

Necessity is the mother of invention.

                                            - Plato

Happy New Year, lovelies!! And congratulations on surviving the most recent apocalypse.  We are quite the resilient little planet, aren't we?  Resilient, and resourceful.     We make fire from stones, team up with natives after making pilgrimages to new worlds, cut furniture in half to fit a tiny apartment instead of buying new stuff..  Resourcefulness at its finest.

In October, my roommate went on a mission trip, so I moved from our two-bedroom Atlanta apartment into a 500 sq ft studio.  Finding a place for everything was much like solving a Rubik's cube.  Being the nerd that I am, everything was space-planned in AutoCAD (and later, Revit) ahead of time to ensure that everything would fit.  And it would have worked JUST FINE, but life (as it tends to do) threw a wrench in my master plan in the form of a surprise wall.

No matter how we tried to arrange the wardrobes, it just wasn't working out. It was always awkward, there was usually wasted space, or it would block the thermostat and smoke detector located on the wall with the door to the bathroom. If only one of the wardrobes were half as wide--then they would fit perfectly.  But to buy a new wardrobe would be around $180, and that just wasn't an option.

Enter super dad.

Dad drove from Louisville to Atlanta.  He was a man on a mission.  And that mission was to chop my Ikea wardrobe in half... strategically.  Upon dad's arrival, he received a proper Georgian greeting.

That dog loves my dad somethin' fierce.  She leaped over the sofa and threw herself onto his lap.  Poor dad... he never saw it coming.
And then we got to work!

The first wardrobe was assembled so quickly, I don't even have pictures of the process.  He even added lights!  Then we got to work cutting the pieces for the second wardrobe.  

Materials: 

Tape Measure

Circular Saw

1" screws

Power Drill

Because I am not the mastermind of this whole operation, I asked dad to email me instructions so we could share his wisdom with the rest of the internet. 

So there you have it folks!  Honestly, it really was that simple.  After we made the new base and top boards, it assembled exactly the same as the Ikea instructions for the larger wardrobe.  I couldn't be happier!  They fit so well, they've often been mistaken for built-ins.  Thanks daddy!

Thanks for stopping by to keep up with the Thompsons, and stay tuned for next week's post! God bless!