The many faces of Rickard

Emily has been hard at work modding the Rickard chair for her thesis. I like Citizen Cane, a nice mix of old and new. Pretty solid ideas, I must say.

She says, "I've been hacking away at the $19.99 Rickard task chair. I'm working on my MFA Design thesis exploring ways to extend the useful lives of task chairs, and how to create infrastructure to recover the parts for recycle at the end of the chair's useful life. One big reason people chuck out this kind of chair is that they get bored of it, so to combat that I've been trying to breathe new life into them and make them fresh, pushing the limits of what a task chair can be.  Here are some pics of my hacks so far...

Flower Child chair covered with Ikea's own flower pattern fabric, embellished (by me) with hand embroidery.

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Bekvam steps up

A simple tweak from Malin makes a huge difference to the Bekvam step stool.

Just a coat of paint and some gorgeous wall paper for a fresh new look. Love it.

See more of the wallpapered step stool. Also check out the play kitchen.

Vallo pendant lamp

Korneel from Belgium made this lamp from watering cans some time ago and is willing to give it away for free. Check it out.

"It is a hanging lamp, made out of two PS Vallo watering cans. I bolted them together, and installed a lamp holder in each of then. As a result, the center of gravity was above the holding point for the wire, and the thing would not hang straight. I solved this with some 'invisible' nylon wire.

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Gorm rat cage

The Gorm is turning out to be ideal as pet cages. Here's another one for rats from Robin.

"My husband and I made this 4-floor cage for our pet rat (who can be seen sleeping on the balcony in the pictures). It cost around $30 for the Gorm shelf unit (5 of the 20x20 size shelves and 4 uprights) and another $40 at the hardware store for the wire mesh, hinges, wood trim that makes the door, and hook latches.

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"McQueen" play kitchen

Michele gave her boy a McQueen kitchen. It's a fabulous alternative to the fairy tale play kitchens we've seen so far.

"I got the idea after seeing so many inspiring play kitchens on the Ikea hacker website. It sparked my creativity, and turned out to be a fun project to plan, easy to execute, and as you can see, the results are pretty good.  It all cost me about 95.00 Euros to make, not considering the recycled parts used (old bowl for the sink, an old faucet, doorhandles and fabric.).

I started with two simple Faktum (similar to Akurum) cabinets and two Abstrakt doors, cut a round hole (using a jigsaw) in the side of one cabinet for the sink, and flipped it on its side and connected it to the other cabinet. The bowl used for the sink is no longer sold by Ikea, and is great because it has a lip around the top that hides the uneven cutting job I did. I made a hole for the faucet with a drill, and added the burners (Panna – like everybody uses).

I then reinforced the two cabinets together by adding a rectangular panel behind both, covered with wallpaper and with a square hole cut into it for the window.

For the refrigerator I put shelves inside, added some metal baskets on the door (I don't remember the name) and added a handle.  The oven door was quite difficult. It involved cutting the Abstrakt door in half without chipping the laminate covering. I then used a jigsaw to cut a rectangular hole for the window. This was actually not cut very well, but as it was covered by a wooden white frame (front and back, separated by a plastic sheet), you cannot see how uneven the cut was.  The most important cut in this project was done by a friend who cut a round hole inside the oven door enabling me to put a second hinge (Integral) inside. This was done by a column drill and was easy if one has the right equipment. I then added an opening/closing magnet for the oven door. I would still like to add a light inside the oven, when I find one that goes off automatically after a few minutes.

At this point I added the curtains and some Ikea products – the magnetic bar on the backsplash (Kroken), a couple plastic holders and brushes and stuff like that. I also bought a few, but not many, Duktig products to add to the fun. Needless to say, my 3 year-old boy was excited to receive his "McQueen kitchen" on Christmas day."

How to zest up a children's table and bedroom side tables

Teresa and Caroline (thanks!) tip me on some cool hacks happening over at Apartment Therapy. Check out their dreamy bedside table, fresh and fun Latt table and a Lack window seat.

Children's Latt table transformation
At a glance, the Latt table and seat tops look like fabulous art pieces but in reality, it is an Ikea Annamoa fabric under a piece of perspex. Simple hack but huge wow factor.

See more on AT's ohdeedoh.

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Simple wall shoe rack using Babord

Jenise's first hack involves 50 lbs of shoes. Here's what she did.

"When I moved across the country, I had 50 lbs of shoes freighted to me on Amtrack, and that was half of my collection. Since then, I have scaled back considerably.  Regardless, when I moved into my apartment that had the least spacious walk in closet (complete with orange shag covered A/C ductwork going through it), I was definitely in need of some serious shoe racks.

Being a rental, I didn't want to spend a ton.  I was having a hard time staying under $100 with the typical bracket and shelf units sold at home stores.  Having no saw or skills in that arena, my husband and I needed pre-cut shelves too.  We found our cheap fix with the Ikea Babord, which is actually a freestanding two shelf wood shoe rack.  If I remember correctly, the Babord was ridiculously cheap at $5.

So we bought
(1) 3 Babord units, which tallied to 6 slatted shelves,
(2) the last 2 Ekby Tryggve solid wood shelves in the store (for my heels without boxes), and
(3) 12 50-cent brackets (unknown model) from Ikea.

The two wall brackets were from our local Ace hardware, which were cheaper and better quality than the Antonius units from Ikea. 

My husband rigged two of the Babord units to have only single shelves so I could fit my boots and large show boxes underneath.  The rest of the Babord shelves were attached to the brackets using plastic security ties. The 2 Ekby Tryggve solid shelves were screwed to the brackets like normal.  All in all, the total cost for my 8 shelf wooden shoe rack unit was around $30."