A compact Mackis charging station

Hayley turns the Mackis stationery caddy into into a charging station. I like the cork pad for the gadgets to rest on. Nice touch.

Scrabble Table

Another table to start off our week. This one I like, being a Scrabble fan. Jodie was about to get rid of this old $10 Ikea Lack table but decided it could be salvaged. And here it is.


She says, "I decided to experiment with it instead. I am a huge Scrabble fan, so I painted a functional scrabble board in the same color scheme as my den. I measured out and drew squares, then glued over the grid lines using Elmer's gel glue. I then spray painted the table, peeled the dried glue off, and used craft paint to fill in the colored squares."

A happy bedside table

Alicia gives her Rian bedside table a happy new look.

She says, "It's not really a difficult hack, but I covered my Rian table with fabric.

All I did was to detach the tabletop with a screwdriver. Lay the top side down on fabric and attach with a staple gun, pulling the fabric tightly. Screw the top back on, and voila."



See more of Alicia's Rian bedside table.

Baseball card collage table

It's a Saturday and perhaps you'll like a round of baseball too. This one's from Matthew. Happy weekend.

He says, "I discovered an interesting way to give the Lack side table a baseball make-over using a bunch of vintage baseball cards, glue, gloss, and resin. The end result is a beautiful table which will add some character to any sports themed room. I’ve found that people love to sit and look at the old cards, even if they’re not into baseball. And for sports fans, it’s a great conversation piece.The resin coating keeps the cards preserved under a durable, clear finish."



See how it's done in this vid.

Malm bed goes glam

Robin transforms the birch Malm bed into glossy glam bed.

"This is our Ikea hack of a Malm bed, formerly in birch effect finish, and now a glossy black custom-looking addition to a swank bedroom in Hollywood Regency style.

That Malm bed took us many days to complete. We primed it first using a special high-cling primer followed by several coats of black semi-gloss oil-based enamel in a custom thinned-out formula.

Trial and error proved the best way around this challenge. As soon as we found the exact amount of turpentine thinning we needed, we enjoyed a smooth-as-silk brush-on experience, and the rest of the paint went on "like buttah."

Customised bay window desk

Lee does a customised desk to fit a bay window using a Plywood panel and two Ikea Apa storage boxes.

He says, "I had a big trestle table in my bedroom that I was using as a computer desk. Behind my bedhead was a bay window, which was wasted space. I decided to build a custom-fit desk to use that space and claw back some space for myself. I had a thick plywood top custom-cut very cheaply, then used two Ikea Apa storage boxes as the legs. By leaving the inserts out of the narrow sides, I have made spaces for my two
towers that I can easily get at.

I covered the leftover panels with the same fabric I used on the plywood top to make two folding screens. These sit outside of each box and hide my computer cables and a waste bin. I used the lids of the two storage boxes as extra legs in between the two boxes. I now have a great computer desk and about 2 1/2 square meters of extra space in my bedroom."

Gorm and the wash basin

Thye Foo from Malaysia (yay!) completes his first Ikea hack. And it's the first time I've seen the Gorm used with a sink unit. That said, the Gorm is untreated wood, so it would be advisable to coat it with varnish to avoid water damage.

"This is my first 'Ikea hack'," he says, "I replaced my dirty old wash basin with the help of Ikea's Gorm shelving unit. It's used as support and doubles up as a shelving unit."

Benjamille Chair

Eric, who is a Masters candidate for a degree in Industrial Design, has been hacking Ikea for a while now. His most current hack is his successful recovery of his Snille Chair. It's a mutant between a Benjamin stool and a Snille - a Benjamille?

He says, "The stem and wheel base of the chair broke off and I was left with no computer desk chair. Having some success with hacking the Benjamin stool before, I had an extra one ready to go. I had to take the base plate and grind off some welds where there was an convex, stamped steel plate.

Once that was removed, I mounted the plate and bracket assembly of the Snille chair with a few shorter, big tooth wood screws and I had myself a really clean hack of a chair.



See more photos of Eric's Benjamille chair.

Handsome makeover for ugly AC unit

If you remember Alex's gorgeous loft, you'll know that he won't settle for ugly. Here's the latest hack in his ongoing loft project.

He says, "I have this really ugly 'motel' style ac unit that did not fit with the rest of my loft and created an unusable and unsightly area. The problem was that I rent so I had to leave the ac unit untouched, and of course, usable.



The solution I came up with was this. I found a pallet full of laminate flooring (Tundra) in the as-is section of Ikea for $14.00 a box. I bought two boxes in case I messed up some cuts and glued them to two plywood panels (Lack) cut to the size of the unit. I made an 'L' shape and attached the panels to the wall with brackets thus leaving the ac unit untouched. I then trimmed all the edges with aluminum strips from home depot.

Next problem was how to finish off the top where there would still be air flow into the room. I finally arrived at what you see here. I found some Cabinet legs in the Ikea as-is section for $8 and bought a white table top from there as well at full price (around $30). I cut the table top down width ways and attached the legs. That piece rests on top of the panels allowing air flow and access to the controls. The grass on top is fake from Michael's crafts and cost around 5 bucks a square.




Anyway, I still have a few more things to do like lighting and painting a graphic of one of my photos but so far I am happy not to have to look at that ugly ac unit again. The space is finally usable and I think, attractive. I am sure that I am not the only one with this type of problem."

Billy bookcases as room dividers

This is Lily's very first Ikea hack and it's a nice one. Clever use of Billy bookcases to section out a 'sleeping area' and create storage. Definitely a snuggle-worthy corner.

She says, "I'm renting this large one space studio but didn't like the idea of having my bed in the living room as well as in the kitchen so I came up with the idea of a room divider. Since I also had a lack of storage for books etc I decided to purchase five Billy's (4 large and one small) to create a 'sleeping corner'. The position of the bookcases also makes kind of a hallway. The first Billy closest to the entrance door is a small one that I use as a place for key/mail/umbrella. A few months later I found two green glass kitchen doors (Rubrik) at the as-is corner which were then fixed to the bottom shelves to serve as a shoe cabinet.

The next Billy is placed reversed so that I can use it as a night table at the head of my bed. At the back I screwed in a simple rack to hang coats when entering the studio. I made sure the screws pierced one of the shelves so that it would be strong enough to carry some weight.

The 3 bookcases facing the living room serve as all kinds of storage. I glued on some gift wrapping paper (at hema) to make it more playful and less white. Some of the shelves are left out so that I have, like, these small decoration cubes in which I sometimes place school works (sculptures, maquettes, etc)

For the sleeping corner on the other side, the backs of the Billy's are simply covered with some leftover paint, with colors matching my favorite bed linen. I hung a Hoppy lamp (by Dark) at the top to create some special light effects.



You may also be interested in:
- Another Billy pantry
- Billy finds new purpose as a pantry
- Stark hall unit as a room divider
- Room dividers for your bedroom
- And this is how you divide a loft
- Buffalo Bill wardrobe and room divider

Head cushions for the sofa

An old cushion headrest and makes two under the hands of Gianluca and Rossella.

They share, "We were trying to fix an old bamboo sofa, so, after new covers for the sofa cushions, we were thinking about adding little cushions. We had this cylindrical foam rubber cushion from Ikea.

I think it's an old model, because I can't find it in catalog now. My first idea was to cut it like a salami to have a lot of little round cushions, but my wife idea was better. We cut in half the cushion by its length with a knife, added a cover made with the same fabric of the sofa, fixed them to the head of the bamboo structure and we obtained two comfortable head cushions.

Nothing really difficult to do, but at least we are able to use the cylindrical cushion that we couldn't really use before because it was too big.

Broder-Lack Freestanding Shelving

Here's another one from Florence, who also gave us the multi-tiered charging station.

She says, "We needed a shelving solution and love the look of the Lack shelves but we couldn't attach the shelves to the wall. We combined the Broder L-foot brace, Posts and Brackets and Lack wall shelves to create a freestanding shelving system.

The width of the Broder system was adjusted to accommodate the 43 1/4" Lack shelves which were then attached to the 10 3/4" Broder brackets with screws. Four of the longer 74 3/4" Lack shelves extend beyond the Broder frame to add visual interest. The longer shelves are evenly distributed and no heavy objects will be placed on the extensions. The Broder posts, brackets and Lack shelves are all well connected and create a stable unit.



You may also be interested in:
- Susannah's Atlas inspired shelves
- Stuff you can do with Lack shelves
- Stolmen and Jarpen bookshelves
- Vestby bedframe converted to bookshelves

Multi-tiered charging station

Florence does have a mother load of gadgets. And this has to be the charging station to rule over them all.

She says, "This may seem like overkill but once we took an inventory of all our phones, cameras and gadgets we decided to create a super charging station. Those desktop versions with two or three outlets just don't cut it for a couple of techies.

We finally settled on the Malm 6-drawer chest to accommodate our storage needs. All of our small, rechargeable electronics are now neatly corralled in one location along with their cables, accessories and documentation.

The top shelf with the flip up lid contains the actual charging station. A series of holes cut into the Malm backboard provide access for the charging cables. The cables are labeled and plugged into a nine-outlet power strip. (In its temporary location the power strip is attached with velcro to the side of the Malm chest. It will be relocated to the back of the unit.) With the toggle switch mounted at the top it's a simple flip of the switch to manage the charging station.

Each drawer now holds its own collection of related gadgets and documentation. Phones, cameras, music players and gaming systems are no longer spread throughout the house. Narrow drawers at the top are
perfect for storing loose rechargeable batteries and even a 15" laptop.

Dual personalities: LEGO table on one side, work surface on the other

Eric was inspired to do a Lego hack of his own after being inspired by the Ikea Hacker Lego table.

He says, "I did not want a large table to take up space in my son's bedroom so I opted to build something that used absolutely no floor space. This Lego shelf serves a dual purpose. It is a Lego table on one side and a smooth work surface (to be used as a shelf, art table, etc.) when the table top is flipped over. It's capable of storing Lego's and takes up no floor space. The shelf/table top is held in place by two dowel pins. The dowel pins keep the shelf/table top from moving and sliding off of the Trofast wall unit yet allow the shelf/table top to be flipped over to either the Lego side or the smooth shelf side. This concept could also be scaled up using a larger freestanding Trofast unit and larger table top.

Lego surface

Smooth worktop surface

Materials:

(x1) Trofast wall storage unit
(x6) Trofast storage boxes
(x1) Leksvik shelf (46 7/8" x 11") or any shelf with similar dimensions that suites your personal taste
(x2) Lego X-large gray baseplate
(x1) Lego large green baseplate
(x2) Wooden dowel pins - available for free in the spare parts bins at Ikea's merchandise return area or as leftovers from other Ikea furniture
Contact adhesive - available at craft stores or your local hardware store

Build Instructions:

1. Assemble Trofast wall storage unit per Ikea instructions
2. Drill holes for dowel pins approx. 2.5" from rear of wall unit (where the wall units meets the wall when mounted)
    - Dowel pin holes should be sized so that the dowel pins fit snugly
    - Holes depth should be deep enough so that 1/2 of the dowel pin protrudes out of the top of the wall unit
3. Glue dowel pins into holes
4. Mount Trofast wall storage unit to the wall per Ikea instructions
5. Cut Leksvik shelf to desired length - I cut my shelf to 41" in length
    - Round the cut edge using either a sander or router
    - Re-stain the cut edge to match the original finish
6. Measure and drill two holes in the Leksvik shelf to accommodate the dowel pins
    - Drill the dowel pin holes slightly larger than the dowel pins so that there is some slack to allow the shelf to be easily placed onto the down pins
7. Measure and cut the Lego baseplates to desired size
8. Glue the Lego baseplates to one side of the Leksvik shelf
9. Place the Leksvik shelf onto the Trofast wall unit
10. Fill the bins with Lego's and put the bins into the wall unit
11. Let our kid(s) have fun!!!

See more of Eric's interchangeable Lego table.

Creating a DVD wall with lighting

I love what Eric did with the Anno Stra panel curtains. Indeed a bright spark! Lights between the DVD towers, who would have thought of that?

Eric shares:

A CD or DVD wall with lights made of:
6 Benno DVD towers

3 Anno Stra Panel curtains
5 Grundtal Spotlights (2 sets needed)
2 panels 250cm x 25cm (98" x 9.8") for top and bottom
2.5m (8.2') round wood (from a broomstick)

I cut the panel curtains on the long side to get 2 curtains out of 1.

Each curtain is now 23cm (9") large. I fixed the Benno DVD tower on the 2 long panels with 24cm (9.4") space in between for the curtains.

The spots are installed on the bottom panel between the DVD towers. I glued a piece of round wood at both ends of the curtains and fixed one end at the top panel. The wood at the lower end acts as a counterweight to keep the curtains tight.

Another Billy pantry

Béatrice helps her friend Michelle kitty proof her kitchen. Well, adopting a stray cat does have its consequences.

She writes, "Recently, my dear friend Michelle adopted a stray kitten, named Kurutchan (the little black one in Japanese). However, I soon nicknamed her Little Monster, for there's nothing Kurutchan loves as much as sending things into the air.... especially at 3 am in the morning!

So after Kurutchan had gleefully broken crockery, bottles, jars of homemade jam, etc... even my friend admitted that open shelving in her kitchen was not working anymore. Since her kitchen is not that big, Michelle and me (as her long-time DIY partner in crime) decided that the usual kitchen cabinets would not fit.

In a fit of inspiration, after flicking through the Ikea catalogue, we decided to use a bookcase since the depth is only 28cm. The Billy bookcase seemed perfect, but as it's only 40 cm wide, it wouldn't have provided much storage, so we decided to buy 2 and to put them side by side. Then, to make sure you-know-who was not going to go in, Michelle bought 2 Billy Byom doors.


On our way out, we found a Gruva lamp in the As-Is section, and because lighting is important in a kitchen, we decided it would be a nice touch to put it on top of the new custom kitchen cupboard.

Around the same time, Michelle was given a glass door from an older Ikea kitchen cabinet, which was great because a glass door would be both "cat-proof" and light. Because we thought it would be nice to have similar knobs, we carved one in a bit of wood: a first And a success! It took us about an afternoon to put everything in order, and about 15 minutes to paint the door and the new knob white. We were both very pleased with the result!

Kurutchan loves her new crow's nest, and fewer things get broken these days... Michelle and her cat are now going to enjoy their new kitchen together."



Related hack:
- Billy finds new purpose as a pantry

Flaren stealth cat litter box

More cat litter problem solvers. This one is from Jon and I do like how discreet it is.

"Our new apartment didn't have a good cubby to hide away the cat box like our old apartment," says Jon, "so we decided to hide the litter in plain sight. It's an easy 4 step process:

1. Find a covered cat box $30
2. Find a cabinet that it fits in (in this case, a Flaren sink cabinet)
3. Find a pet door
4. Cut a hole for the pet door and install.

I added a couple litter mats $20, one inside, one outside, and the litter tracking is almost non-existent. I put rails on the bottom of the cabinet to make the box easier to slide out for cleaning, provide some storage space to stuff litter bags, and to hold the interior mat in place. Since it is an open-backed cabinet, I nailed a sheet of corrugated plastic (like on a yard sign) to the rear to close it off. Because of this and the cat flap, odor is contained and not a problem. As an added benefit, being a sink cabinet, it is made to get wet and the surfaces are easy to clean."

See more of Jon's stealth cat litter box.

Related hacks:
- Quick and easy cat litter box
- Snack cat litter boxes
- Compact kitty box
- No pooper cat litter

Need kitchen space? Get a cart

A movable cart is a great mini kitchen island. Extra counter space, storage and serving space. What's not to like? Terry does a great job making the Bekvam fit his kitchen's look and feel.

She says, "I thought you might want to see how I changed an Ikea Bekvam kitchen cart.

First, I stained it to match our new Ikea Liljestad cabinets, then sealed with Varathane. I used leftover tiles from the backsplash to tile the top. To finish the tiled top I added a frame of wood, stained the same color as the cart."

Bowling alley chair hack

Chris scores some seats from a bowling alley and pairs them nicely with Ikea swivel legs.

He explains, "Through my relentless searching of craigslist, I found these free seats from a bowling alley. Initially I was going to build a bench with them, but a stop at Ikea led me in a different direction.

Whenever possible, I do not buy products made in any country that tolerates poor working conditions. One of the reasons I go to Ikea is the variety of countries the product are made in. For more on working conditions in ikea factories, you can go here.

Anyway, during Ikea's winter sale at the south Philadelphia store, they have $9.99 Hajdeby office chairs (not on website) which unfortunately are made in China, but the time I was more preoccupied with my idea than looking at the label on the box. The chair is similar in appearance to the Svenning swivel chair. Except the star shaped base of the chair I bought is steel, not plastic.

The only thing I needed to do was figure out a way to attach the two. This is where assemble-it-yourself design comes in handy. The way the chair bottom is designed, you can basically use anything as a seat... anything you can bolt or screw to anyway. In my case, I only needed two pieces of 3/4" solid square aluminum bar (which I have, because I work in aluminum) and a few bolts. The only tricky part was
figuring out the weight balance of the chair, so I had to clamp everything in place and try sitting in it a few times before drilling/threading/bolting everything together.

It's actually quite comfortable. Putting the first one together took maybe 90 minutes. The second one will probably take 15 minutes. There are lots of seats still available at the bowling alley, so I might make a few more... or might make something else with them... not sure yet. Now what do I do with the seat cushions that came with the base? Guess you'll have to wait for part 2."

Billy finds new purpose as a pantry

Michael comes up with a neat solution for his small dining area. Great use of space.

"The kitchen in our new house was too small," says Michael, "so we converted this set of Billy bookcases (with extenders and doors) to a pantry. Note the chairs and legs on the custom table top. The connecting shelf and trim was from cheap particle board shelving you can get at any hardware store.

A trim Lack stereo shelf

This is a nice hi-fi set up from Christopher. Reminds me of how Dad use to stack his amps. Cool. I like.

He says, "I just finished my own Ikea hack, and I wanted to share.

I've got 2 Expedit shelves to hold my records and smaller items, but I wanted a coordinating shelf to hold my stereo. As we all know, the Lack system goes very well with Expedit. Unfortunately, my stereo components are just over 16" wide, and would look odd on the 37" wide shelves that come standard on the Lack bookcase. So here's my solution:

1. Buy a Lack bookcase. Using a slice of pizza, bribe your neighbor to help carry it inside. Unpack the box.

2. Measure and cut shelves to desired width. In this step, accuracy is of prime importance. If the shelves are not cut square or identical, your book case will not go together properly. I used a circular saw with a sharp blade. In this case, I cut the shelves exactly in half, but in theory, they could be whatever width you like.

3. Since the shelves are mostly air inside, there is nothing to screw into when you assemble the unit. So I used some blocks of maple cut to fit exactly inside the shelf. I mashed the cardboard in to make room for the wood blocks, and used Elmer's Ultimate glue to firmly attach the blocks inside the shelves. This step is important, as well, since this is what holds the left side of the bookcase to the right side of the bookcase. Cutting corners on this step will cause catastrophic shelf failure, and could lead to property damage and/or serious personal injury.

4. After the glue has dried, the parts are ready to assemble. Use appropriate size drill bits and drill holes in the wood blocks that match the original holes in the particleboard. Assemble the bookcase as originally intended.

5. Load it up with your stuff, knowing that nobody will ever know that you hacked it.

6. As a bonus hack, I used a part of an old bed and 2 leftover plates from a universal LCD TV mounting kit to make a bar across the back of the turntable area to attach the lights, since the Lack shelf is too thick for the clamps that hold the lights on.

Loft and bedroom with kickass desks

Charyl sets up a couple of wardrobes as a room divider. I know the wardrobes are not hacks but thought I'd include them for an overview of the room. The desks are nice - the Pragel countertop and Malm drawers make two good looking work spaces.

She says, "My sons are currently sharing our loft space which is about 11 x 17. We wanted to provide some sense of privacy, so used two Aneboda wardrobes as a privacy screen / storage.

We also created desks and storage for them using 73.5" Pragel countertops and two Malms. The desk runs the length of the half wall and although it's 33.5" high with the combined heights of the Malms and counters, it's comfortable with adjustable office chairs. My eldest son connected the countertops to a couple 2 x 4s on the wall and to the back of the Malms with L brackets; two adjustable legs are used on each front corner – very sturdy. He also drilled holes in the counters for cords and attached power strips right underneath. (And yes, something needs to be done with the back of the wardrobes, like wall paper or cork board!)

Customised bulletin board

Nerea wanted a bulletin board but didn't like the regular ones because they were an eyesore. So Nerea decided to create a customized bulletin board with Ikea materials.

"I bought a 70x100 cm Fanaholm frame and some Hedvig fabric. Then I bought a cork sheet and had it cut to size (98.5x68.5 cm). I glued the cork to the back of the frame with white glue. When the glue was semi-dry I held the fabric in place with tacks on the backside and voilá, that was it, now I have a cool bulletin board."

Plenty from Lack

Suphi and Ebrar are from Istanbul and they love hacking Ikea stuff. Pretty ingeniously too. Buy two items get three. Not bad at all.

They say, "We had one Lack coffee table and another Lack TV Bench. We bought them before moving in and later realized that they were too big and unfunctional for our house. Main colours that we use in our house are white and red. And a little bit purple. Anyway, here's what we did.

This is Lack TV Bench that we will hack.


Here we go!


We will need one Vika Lerberg red.


And one Vika Curry, red!


Hacking…


Ta daaa!


Add more ikea stuff…


Done!


But not finished… This is the Lack Coffee Table we will use!


And Vika Curry of course…


Hacking again…


Ta daaa!


These are the pieces left from the Lack TV Bench.


They are going to be…

The exact coffee table we wanted for ourselves. We won't use it right there, of course.


One desk, one dining table and a coffee table from just two items.Not bad, huh?"