IKEA Coffee Bar Ideas and Hacks That Work

IKEA furniture is good raw material for a home coffee bar. It is cheap, modular, easy to find, and easy to modify. Not every piece suits the job, though. Some are too shallow, some too flimsy, and some cost as much as furniture that was designed for coffee in the first place.

Below are the five pieces worth using, how to hack each one, a full build with costs, and the pieces to leave on the shelf. Dimensions are IKEA's listed sizes. Prices are approximate and move around, so check the current listing.

The best IKEA pieces for a coffee bar, compared

KALLAX shelf unit

The KALLAX 2x2 is the most useful single piece. The top holds a coffee machine and grinder side by side, and the four cubbies below take baskets, bins, or KALLAX inserts (drawers, doors, dividers).

One thing to know before you buy: at 30 3/8 in tall it sits about 6 in below a standard 36 in kitchen counter. That is table height. It is comfortable for a drip machine or pod brewer. If you pull espresso shots and tamp every morning, you will notice the lower surface.

If you have the wall space, a 2x4 unit laid on its side gives you roughly twice the width at the same height, with eight cubbies.

Hack it: Add a butcher block top ($20-$40 from a hardware store), cut to overhang by an inch on each side. It gives you a more solid work surface and hides the particleboard edges. Put drawer inserts (about $13 each) in the bottom cubbies for filters and pods, and leave the top cubbies open for mugs.

BESTÅ storage system

BESTÅ is the pick when you want the coffee corner to look like furniture. A single frame with a door gives you a clean, closed-front cabinet, and two frames side by side make a station about 47 in wide. It comes in white, black-brown and walnut finishes, so it matches most kitchens. Interior shelves keep the supplies sorted and the doors hide them.

The frame is 15 3/4 in deep, which is a lot shallower than a 24-25 in kitchen counter. Measure the depth of your machine, including the water tank and the plug at the back, before you commit.

Hack it: Mount the frame on the wall so the top surface sits at 36 in from the floor. You get a floating coffee bar at true counter height with open floor underneath. Fix it into studs or use anchors rated for the load, because a machine, a full water tank and a row of mugs add up. If you would rather stand it on the floor, add legs from the CAPITA or EKET lines ($10-$20).

For purpose-built alternatives with doors, see the coffee bar cabinets guide.

RÅSKOG utility cart

The RÅSKOG is a three-tier rolling cart and the cheapest way into a coffee station. It fits beside a fridge or at the end of a counter, and it rolls out of the way. The tiers sort themselves into zones: machine on top, mugs and daily supplies in the middle, bulk storage on the bottom.

Limitations: The tiers are narrow. A standard drip coffee maker fits, larger espresso machines do not. The top tier is a tray with raised edges, not a flat shelf, so a machine whose base is close to the tray size can sit awkwardly. Measure the footprint of your coffee maker first.

The coffee bar carts guide covers what to look for in any cart, including ones with a flat top.

LACK wall shelves

LACK floating shelves are the easiest way to add storage above a coffee station. The 43 1/4 in shelf is the most useful length. It holds 4 to 6 mugs or a row of canisters.

Hack it: Mount two LACK shelves at different heights above the machine, and stick adhesive cup hooks under the lower one for hanging mugs. Total cost is about $25-$35. Hang the lower shelf about 18 in above the work surface, the same gap kitchens use between counter and upper cabinets, and check that you can still lift the lid of the machine to fill it.

LACK shelves are for mugs and jars, not appliances. For anything heavier, the coffee bar shelves guide covers sturdier options.

ALEX drawer unit

ALEX is a five-drawer unit designed to sit under a desk. The drawers are shallow, which is what you want for pods, filters, spoons and other small things that vanish in a deep cupboard.

It works best as a companion piece beside a table or counter, with a grinder or a canister on its flat top. Put a tabletop across two ALEX units and you get a desk-height coffee station with ten drawers.

A complete IKEA coffee bar for about $145

You end up with a 32 in wide coffee station with a real wood top, four cubbies (two with drawers), wall shelves for mugs, and glass jars on display. Assembly and mounting take about an hour.

Clear glass jars look good but let light in, so keep the beans jar out of direct sun or buy beans in amounts you finish within a couple of weeks. The coffee canisters guide has the details.

For builds that do not start at IKEA, see the DIY coffee station guide and coffee bar on a budget.

IKEA pieces to skip

• HEMNES sideboard. A nice piece, but it costs about the same as purpose-built coffee bar cabinets that come with towel bars and cup hooks.
• FLYSTA shelving. Too lightweight to put a coffee machine on.
• IVAR as it comes. The unfinished pine works structurally but absorbs coffee stains right away. If you use IVAR, seal it with polyurethane first.

How to make an IKEA coffee bar look less like IKEA

• Swap the hardware. Brass, matte black or leather-strap pulls in place of the stock ones. This one change makes the biggest visual difference.
• Add a real wood top. Butcher block, live-edge, or a thick cutting board on a KALLAX changes how the whole piece reads.
• Paint it. IKEA furniture takes chalk paint without much prep. Sage green, navy or matte black makes it look custom.
• Mix in things that are not IKEA. Use IKEA for the structure, then add thrifted decor, handmade mugs and a good machine. The contrast stops it looking like a catalog page.

Several of the setups in small coffee bar ideas use these same pieces in apartments. For layouts sorted by room and style, browse the full coffee bar ideas gallery.