An Aussie mum has created a $10 hack to take your IKEA furniture to new heights.

We all love an IKEA flat pack – they’re affordable, functional and, um, relatively easy to assemble.

Now, Kylie Hughes, a copywriter and mum from the Gold Coast, created Stylkea – a range of stick-on fretwork panels which give you the designer look for a flat pack budget.

“We were renovating our home on a fixed budget and I was spending literally hours every week looking through magazines and design sites searching for ways to get the same designer looks on a savvier budget,” she told Mamamia.

“I kept getting drawn back to IKEA but I didn’t want my house looking like a clone of the catalogue,” she explained. “That’s when I came up with the idea for Stylkea.”

Every room deserves a hero! #imadethis #heropiece #ikeakallax #fretwork #queenslandhomes #glamdecor

A post shared by Stylkea (@stylkea) on Sep 3, 2017 at 4:39am PDT

Hughes had no previous design experience but she sketched up some panels and with the help of her engineer husband, got them made to fit her Kallax credenza.

“Friends and visitors would constantly comment on it and couldn’t believe that it started its life as a flat pack,” she said.

After 18 months of planning the Stylkea store went live on July 1. Hughes offers a range of peel-and-stick overlay panels which transform your IKEA finds into bespoke, designer-like pieces.

Hughes believes people are interested Stylkea type hacks because they want to be able to re-purpose their existing furniture, rather than throwing it out and buying new stuff.

“With the cost of living being so high, people can’t afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a houseful of designer furniture, but they want to live in beautiful, inspired spaces.

“And people want to live sustainably,” she says. “Nobody wants to throw out a piece of furniture they can re-purpose or upcycle to look amazing.”

Hey #ikeahackers… How about a Jonathan Adler inspired writing desk? If you love the king of whimsy but not so much his price tag, you might find your happy place with Styl-Panel 1115 + IKEA Hemnes! #ikeahack #jonathanadler #ikeahemnes

A post shared by Stylkea (@stylkea) on Sep 1, 2017 at 5:36am PDT

Finally, Hughes says we love hacks because we don’t just want to be consumers, we want to be involved in the design process.

The Stylkea range starts at just $9.95 and is designed to work with your existing Besta, Kallax and Malm pieces.

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