Zigging the zag in Lack

Hans unzigs the zags in the Lack shelf for a neat bookcase.

He says, "I've felt for a long time that I liked the Lack Zigzag shelf though I thought it took up way too much wall space so I wanted to remake it and take advantage of the storage space it provided though without using so much space. I had made several drawings on ideas on how to change it before I bought it and I thought the hack would be easy, it wasn't. The shelf is made so that it can only be assembled in one way thus creating that zigzag-form.

To alter that I had to use a power drill to drill thru the holes for the wooden plugs and the screws so that I could alter the design. Unfortunately I got a bit carried away and drilled thru way more holes than I needed.

Fitting my new design in a straight manner to the wall turned out to be very difficult though. The original shelf's fittings are placed in a row but my alterations of the shelf placed the fittings in a much more chaotic pattern that was hard to get lined up correctly. My first try to get the holes for the fittings in the right places was made in this fashion.

 The idea was that I could make markings on the wall with the pencils, however it was way to heavy to hold up straight and in the same time make good markings on the wall i.e. it didn't work very well, my next idea worked better which leads me to this picture.

I was in luck that I had this very special screwdriver, otherwise I don't know what I would have done. Placing the shelf close to the corner was good in an artistic way but maybe not so good in a practical way. Anyways here's what it looks like when it was finished. I'm very pleased with the result and it fits nicely next to my desk."

It's never too Lade to be a winner

K.Gragera turns a hand-me-down Lade Bed into a stand, fit for champions.



She says, "This Lade Bed had been passed down from one friend to another friend to another friend. Finally it came to rest and my friend decided to recycle the wood and create an award stand for a Jiu-Jitsu Tournament
he was hosting.

The wood was sawed into different heights for the placements. Sheets of plywood were cut and screwed onto the frame. The top part was spray painted black. The graphic on the front was printed on very large
paper and mounted to the stand. 3 friends stood together on each placement to test if the plywood would hold the weight of 3 people.

This award stand was used at the Bay Area Open Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament in Berkeley, CA. It withstood the weights of very large muscular men.

Hackeas: A little embellishment goes a long way

Desk and wall art
Jennifer needed a desk for her guest room, but had little space. She says, "I saw the Norbo wall mounted table at Ikea and knew I could do something with it. I was on a very tight budget and decided to spend my money on other items. The next time I went to Ikea. I found the same desk (missing one screw) for 1/3 the price in the As-is section (my favorite). I painted it in my kooky way and then mounted it to the wall."



See more here.

Paper napkin it

Lydia hacks lots of these chests and frames as presents. She says, "I've improved the looks of some of the mini-chests with the effective paper napkin technique. I've done many of them, some with asparagus, strawberries and gardening utensils. I use the latter to keep my secateurs, seeds, string and other small things I need for gardening. The nice old-fashioned look comes from applying two layers of paint with crackle glaze in-between.

My golden angel key cabinet which has been refurbished with the same method.


Then there are some pictures of my object frames. Since I'm absolutely fond of lighthouses it suggested itself that I created some lighthouse sceneries, and I think I was quite successful. I simply glued the pictures (taken from old calendars) into the frames as a background and used sand, sea shells, seaweed, etc. to decorate the foreground.



Dress up your wardrobe too
Heidi jazzes up the plastic panels on the Aneboda drawers and wardrobe. She says, "I just used Japanese paper/tissue paper and gift wrapping paper to decorate my Aneboda drawers and wardrobes and make their 'sterile' look into something more fitting to my bedroom.

This guitar has got the chops

Zach does it again, with Spar butcher block, that only costs $29.99 for a 19" slab. The block sat in his stockpile for 2 years till he came across a quote from Brad Paisley. He said "a Tele(caster) is nothing more than a cutting board, a baseball bat and strings". And the next Ikea Z guitar made the cut.





Thanks LeonHunter!

See more of Zach's butcher block guitar.
See his previous guitar made from an Ikea table top.

Closet computer desk

Leenya fits her office into an armoir. Close the door and the clutter disappears.



She says, "It involves the Leksvik armoir that my husband and I tailored into a computer 'office'. It provides more flexibility than the Alve Computer Desk and it works with our decoration." Two other boards were fitted in to provide additional storage and space for a printer. A rolling computer keyboard shelf is attached underneath the main shelf.



See Leenya's computer desk in a wardrobe.

Suit your sofa right: A step-by-step sofa re-upholstery

Over at Eddie Ross', they've posted an amazing step by step re-upholstery of a Manstad sofa. The chocolate twill cover is from the Slipcover shop and tucked using only a staple gun and an Exacto knife. The right suit really does make the sofa.



See more of the slipcover re-upholstery.

Airstream Ikea hacking

I'm loving what Deb did to cover the airstream windows. 

She says, "My Ikea hack is for an 1970 Airstream trailer that I found on craigslist and revamped into my girly-space. I took 'Gyllen Wall Panels' (not found on website) which are supposed to be used as closet doors and wall dividers, and I chopped them right down making them into blinds for the airstream windows. Airstream windows are tough to find proper window coverings for ... as the walls are curved (without paying a fortune for custom blinds). So these worked great, are pretty, super easy to redecorate when I'm in the mood to change colours and cheap too!"

See how pretty my windows are now!

Tip: Parallel mounting for a Deka wire

Mark solves the problem of mounting the Deka curtain wire parallel to the wall.

He says, "My daughter has lots of rosettes, from horse shows, that she likes to display in her bedroom. In the past my wife has hung ribbon on the wall using "drawing pins", but this looks untidy and leaves holes in the wall/coving. After redecorating her room I had the bright idea of using Deka curtain wire and duly bought some, a snip at £2.79 each. However when I went to fit them I spotted a fatal flaw in my plan, or lack of plan.

The Deka wire is designed to go between two walls, and (a) the wire was too short for the room and (b) I didn't want the wire across the full width of the room. What I needed was to mount the end pieces parallel with the room. Alternatively I guess I could use some Dignitet corner pieces.

The solution was to use some small brackets to mount the Deka end pieces on, ultimately this could be disguised using some wood etc. Using these brackets gives all the advantages of the Deka hardware but with the added flexibility of being able to adjust the length. Obviously this doesn't just work for hanging rosettes but for anything you might want to hang from a Deka wire, even curtains."

Shoe box speakers

Mike hacks this handsome set of speakers from a shoe cabinet. Sounds like a great way to turn waste into wonderful.

He says, "I had no further use for the Ikea shoe cupboard (name unknown) but really liked the birch veneered panels and realised that they would make a great match with my Hi-Fi unit and Benno CD/DVD storage. I therefore decided to make a pair of speakers using Fostex FE83e units , and the Fostex DBR design. I wanted to preserve the panels as untrimmed as possible to save the nice veneered edges, so needed to do a little work with a spreadsheet to calculate revised sizes, retaining the overall design volumes. Some work with a saw and glue, and some carpet underlay, yielded the pictured speakers. You can see that they match the colour and style of my other Ikea items very well - and they sound great, especially now they are powered by a Sonic Impact T amp."

***

Can I hack the Merlion?
Last week I had a marvellous time meeting a hacker, Luthien. It's strange that it took me almost 3 years to finally meet a hacker face to face. We had teh tarik (pulled tea), great conversation, a leisurely stroll through Ikea pointing out stuff that are potential hacks, rounding it up with hotdogs and ice-cream. I had so much fun and am kinda itching to meet more hackers, to make up for lost time. Hah!

So ... my next stop is the Lion City. This is especially going out to all you hackers (and non-hackers. It's ok, I still love you) lurking in Singapore. I'm going to be in your city from Tuesday (26th) for a week and if you're game to come up for air, shoot me a mail at ikeahacker (at) gmail (dot) com. And yeah, what else to do ah, besides Orchard Road and the usual tourist traps?

Merlion photo by Wolfgang Sladkowski

Related hacks:
- Salad bowl speakers
- Sexy speaker legs
- Dudero speaker stand
- PS Cart speakers

Anyone who sews will love this ironing board

If you ever need to iron large pieces of fabric like curtains, you'll love Katie Croteau's ironing board. It's hacked from the Norden table, with a cover/pad over it.




See more here.

Shine a spotlight on this Tertial ceiling lamp

A year ago I received a three legged lamp from Jason. Aurélien ups it a notch with 6 lamps. And yeah, it's way cooler.

The base uses a Blanda Blank with 6 Tertial lamps screwed onto its rim. The hard bit is the wiring and making sure everything lights up as it should.

See more photos of the Tertial ceiling lamp.

Project cat runway

Got sexy feline who wants to strut its stuff? Give it a runway then. Let Liz and Jarod show you how.

"My partner and I created a rental-friendly (i.e. no holes in walls) cat run using 2 Ikea Expedit shelving units." The shelves form the base for the run, which is made from a 2.8m x 0.4m chipboard. The run is carpeted for kitty to sink its claws into. A little ledge was also added to the side of the shelving unit, so that kitty can get up there.




See more of the cat run.

Put a cat litter box at the entryway?

The first thing that comes to mind - "No way!" Kitty's poo-poo palace is not the best thing to greet you the moment you open the door and ... what about the smell? But as we see, hackers have found a way to cleverly disguise litter boxes. Here are two, that can make an entrance to any landing space.

Sleek cat litter and bench
Romina comes up with a winning cat box. It's so simple yet looks great. Better yet, it doubles up as a bench.

She says, "Living in a Chicago high rise has its problems when it comes to cats and their litter box. There is just no good place to keep it! When you are two architects who really have an eye for the modern and chic, you really don't want a kitty litter box in your closet, or bathroom. We came up with solution to hide the cat box: made from the Besta shelf/height extension units and the Besta Holmbo door. We added the Capita legs and inset them for a modern look.

It sits in our entry foyer and serves as a bench for sitting and putting on your shoes, a mail area, and kitty litter hide out. The cats love it for its privacy and we love it because no one knows what this piece hides! The only thing we did was cut the middle vertical panel in half to allow a hole for the cats to sneak through. We added some contact paper to the inside to protect the particle board from the cats scratching it and for easy cleaning.





Kitty kitty litter box
Aurélien does hers with a Norrebo storage bench. She added a cute "cat" entrance to the side and for the front, used only the front panel of the pull-out drawer. The panel is held in place with magnets. Easily removable for cleaning.

See more of Aurelien's kitty litter box.

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

Study and dog room remodel

A handsome study room makeover from Tum. Good thing, Noodle, the dog, doesn't tear everything apart, when he's kept in there.

"We wanted to remodel one of our rooms to a study or office. We also needed it to hold our dog when we're not home. It uses a Besta cabinet and underframe, Vika Hyttan stainless table top, Vika Amon tabletops in Black-Brown (used for the lower backing to hide the cables, and the backing above the stainless top), Vika Inge legs to hold up the back of the top (two brackets hold up the front), Basisk lights above the desk, Grono table lamps above the cabinets, Solsta sofabed, Lack coffee table, rug (can't remember the name discontinued), Target floor lamp. Also various screws, L brackets to hold everything together, waterproof mattress pad and bed sheets used to cover the sofabed so that it's easy to clean. The Solsta doesn't come with a removable cover."




Here are more details of Tum's remodel.

Nexus medicine cabinet

Anthony from Vancouver constructs a medicine cabinet that just screams elegance. Love love love it.

He says, "I did my bathroom a few months ago and created a medicine cabinet using a Nexus cabinet door from Ikea. I wanted more storage but didn't want something that screamed 'medicine cabinet'. The frame is constructed with 1x4 lumber and a backer board, and installed inside the studs before the walls were finished. The door itself is a 24x36" black-brown Nexus door. I first glued and nailed a smaller piece of 1/4" plywood as a spacer to give the mirror a floating effect. Then I glued on a 22x22" custom-cut mirror using PL9000 construction adhesive. I added glass shelves and of course the blumotion door damper and it was done."

Hackeas: Easy fixes

Jonas gets pretty
Paula adds her touch to the Jonas computer table, via the magic of a black Sharpie.

Laptop stand and desk unclutterer
Rick tips me on this laptop stand featured on Lifehacker. Moritzvd repurposed the Mackis CD storage drawer to run some cables and voila! it's a laptop stand with organizer, desk declutter all in one.



See more of the laptop stand and organiser.

Disco light USB box
Handem hid an annoying LED lit USB connector underneath one of the tree part Risten boxes, to create a fun disco light USB box.



Fira cutlery holder
Lani lives in a small studio in Amsterdam. She says, "When I moved in, the studio was renovated, but the kitchen had still the original style; low counter top (my boyfriend used to do the dishes sitting on a chair), not many closets and no drawers to place cutlery. To add extra storage place, I placed an Ivar cabinet in my kitchen. During its assemble, I squeezed in a Fira drawer inside it for my cutlery. I did not have to use any glue or nails, it exactly fits!"




Save your rug
Laura recycled an old towel to replace the worn rubber backing on her old Ikea rug.




See more here.

Easy headboard
Gràcia, from Spain, says, "My dad, Santiago just hung an Ikea Vika Byske table top to work as our headboard. We gave it a coat of varnish and attached some Numerar legs to it since we were worried the wall wouldn't be able to hold such a heavy table top. It's a beautiful headboard, the perfect size for our mattress."

Malm chest turned entry way storage

Joy bought the Malm storage unit thinking that she could use it for a night stand. But after moving, she realized that she had no use for it but did not want to part with it. So she turns it into a catch-all entryway storage unit instead.

Here's what she did:
1. I took the top off and removed the two tracks that it ran on.
2. I attached legs from an old Lack side table.
3. Attached the old tracks to the long side of the unit so that a door could be attached to slide sideways. I would recommend putting the tracks at the edge of the side instead of the middle because my sliding door can only open to a certain point forcing me to reach in blindly to the right corner of the unit. Not a biggie though.
4. The front door is made out of plexiglass sprayed with frosted glass spray paint.
5. I bought one 1/8 x 2 inch ply wood piece and made a cut the wood to make a border around the plexiglass attached with wood glue and screws.
6. Bought a nice handle from Home Depot and attached it to the wood on the front for easier access to slide the door.




"It tucks all of my household tools away and became a good landing spot for my mail. It's not the sturdiest thing in the world because the base of the legs aren't very wide but before becoming an entry way storage, it was sturdy enough to be a bookcase that held my 23" flat screen on top."

Good vibrations Lack table

I laughed out loud when I received this hack from Tim, an artist.

He says, "It's an art work I made a few years ago that would surely come within the scope of an Ikea Hack. It is titled: 'Good Vibrations'. Materials: one Lack side-table top, four 'ultra-smooth lite-up multi-speed stimulators', one book 'Great Railway Journeys of the World'.

The Lack table top proved ideal due to its lightweight but deep construction. The table was intended to vibrate slowly around the gallery floor but more powerful legs would have been required for this. It tended to vibrate loudly on the spot, sounding a little like a light aircraft about to take off. Sometime in the future I plan to make an up-market version using gold 'stimulators' and black/brown Lack top.



See more here.

Alve drawer with cable box top

Elie modifies an Alve Drawer unit modified to accommodate her cable box.

She says, "We needed a place to keep files and were limited in terms of space. Alve fit the bill but not our style. I sanded and painted in a high gloss black and had my contractor, Geronimo, build me cover and make a drop down door to conceal the cable box."

The Korrekt handles were added to complete the look.

Decorating with Lord of the Rings

I am a huge LOTR fan but apparently not as huge a fan as these two ladies, who have taken pains to bring a little Elven magic into their homes. Me? I just to bring Aragorn home.

Elven themed dressing table
Khaythora completes her "Lord of the Rings" dressing table with a few Rast chests and curtain hold backs.

She says, "It was made with two cheap and cheerful Rast chest of drawers. I have to say that the theme of the bedroom (still not quite finished, ahem) is LOTR Elven(ish), hence all the powdery colours and the mirrors. The colour on the wall is potter's clay' and the fabrics for draperies, etc are silvery silks. Anyway, so we put the chest of drawers together and then cut a sturdy piece of wood into size for the table top. Of course, we needed something on top of that. After some searching around I came across pieces that are meant as curtain hold back (to be screwed into the wall, not found on Ikea website) and with glue and screws and pieces of wood we turned them round and put them onto the table top and underneath the second tier. Then a lot of filler, sanding and painting, and new handles/knobs for the chests of drawers, and we had the first version of the dressing table. As you can see in the photo (version 1, below) the walls weren't decorated yet and the mirror was missing.

However, I then found the Venetian dressing table mirror, and suddenly the whole dressing table wasn't tall enough anymore. It needed a third tier. With more wood and another set of curtain hold backs we set onto building that as well, and with more paint it was all finally finished. The photo of version 2 below is the final version as it is today. By the way, the (painted) stool is from Ikea as well. They don't sell it anymore, I think."



Craft cabinet with pull down worktop
Luthien designs a craft cabinet from scratch with various Ikea pieces and embellishes it LOTR style. What's brilliant about this cabinet is that the doors open downwards to provide a worktop.

The huge cabinet is constructed from 4 large shelves (Broder L79 cm x W36.5 cm) for the 2 front doors and the back panels. The smaller inserts inside are 6 smaller pieces (Fabian L70 cm x W24 cm). The cabinet is then given a faux stone finish and her real name in Elvish.

See more of Luthien's faux stone finish.

It may be slim but it has lots of storage

Mark has this great looking slim desk hacked from the Akurum kitchen cabinet range.

He says, "It's an implementation of this hack, with additional low cabinets and an extra workspace: This thin desk allows us to use a guest bedroom as a home office and provided plenty of storage.

Each workstation on the desk was composed of 1 39" wall cabinet, and a Vika Kaj leg. We also secured it to the wall using a simple "L" bracket. We used some felt covered feet to raise it off of the floor a few inches. The desk tops were somewhat of a wood working project: 1" poplar joined and stained. We also made keyboard shelves and mounted them with glides purchased at the hardware store (They are Blum brand, which I believe Ikea uses them in their kitchen cabinets).

Then we attached the wall cabinets to 2 "over the refrigerator cabinets", set on Capita legs."

Media stand that hides the uglies

Dan gets inspired by the vintage media center and hacks one of his own.

He says, "I recently moved into a new place with an old friend who happens to have even bigger TV than I do (oh no!). So that big bad goes in the living room, and I need to figure out how to fit this 40 inch Bravia in my room with some clean style, and how to get it not looking too much like living room equipment. The vintage entertainment hack has some nice qualities to it, but seemed higher profile than I wanted and left all the equipment exposed.

I decided to go with the Expedit (5x1) shelving unit with 6" Capita legs. I also installed cabinets and drawers to conceal the subwoofer, electronics and the HTPC media center. For the media center I left out one of the dividers so there is an extra wide space. I placed that remaining divider at the far end of the unit so there isn't a big gap between the cabinet doors in that extra-wide area.

One issue with this is that I needed/wanted all the cubbies to have open ended backs (the HTPC is 16.5 inches deep). In order to accomplish this and keep things stable, the cabinet doors were only installed with the singe plank they anchor into, and that is screwed into the Expedit wall. It is difficult leveling this type of installation, so be careful, and use one of the existing planks as temporary level platform if need be."

Magnetic Ivar blackboard

Here's another from Jeraldine, who earlier gave us the pretty Ingo.

She says, "I wanted a blackboard in my kitchen to quickly note shopping ideas. So I decided to paint the door of my Ivar cabinet as a blackboard. At the same time, I thought why not also making it magnetic? So I painted it in two steps: first the magnetic and second the blackboard special paint (not necessarily black) and it’s really great! The magnetic paint can be a bit expensive though."

Need some thing to store 43 folders?

It's Jeraldine again, now with a file holder. I like this and can see it working really nicely for my stash of papers and GTD tickler files.

She says, "I had this storage box to which I had added wheels to move it easier. It was previously in a refurbished bathroom to stock towels. At the same time, I had papers that I needed to store and I tried to set up a system to hang my papers in some office files.

I bought a thin piece of wood, cut it in 2 to a little bit less than the width of Apa. Cut them the exact breadth and you will be stuck trying to slide them into the groove. Then I filed down both ends of the wood to half its height to allow them to enter in the existing upper track of the Apa wood. I had to file the ends down because using a piece of wood as thin as the groove will not support the weight of the paper files. I installed the pieces of wood according to the breadth of the hanging office files and stored my papers! I’ll paint the storage box in a later stage."

Ingo Table

Jeraldine pretties up the stoic Ingo coffee table and adds space to it too.

She says, "I bought a simple wood table for my living room as I love wood. However, I decided to smart it up a bit. So I painted it in white. I added a pattern with a stencil and grey painting. Then I realised I needed a shelf under it to store some magazines for example. As I had dismounted an old Ivar furniture, I took one of the plank, sewed it to size, painted it. I marked the height at which I wanted the plank and drilled four holes in each leg. I pushed in them the small pieces of steel usually used to make Ivar planks stand and installed the extra shelf under my table."

The bone box

Derrik has a collection of about 40 x-rays and for the longest time wanted to build a light table for them.

He says, "As it happens, I needed a coffee table and the Ramvik design looked perfect for what I wanted to do. With the help of a friend, we cut and routed a big hole into the table top and wired together some florescent lighting. The drawers don't function as such and are only there so the housing has sides. I managed to get the piece of acrylic (through which the light pours) for about $30."

Patchwork armchair

Ele does a pretty patchwork cover for her Tullsta.

She says, "I re-upholstered it with a patchwork of fabrics including several with lino block I printed myself. I also painted the scuffed legs white. I cut off the fabric and used it to make a pattern. I re-used the zipper for the cushion and then trashed it as it was neither nice nor clean. I used a combination of new fabric, thrifted fabrics (corduroy, cotton, upholstery, an old pair of pants and a men's shirt etc.) and block printed fabrics. I used lino block prints of the oudjat eyes, radiolarians, jellyfish, frog & lily pad, koi, seahorse, walrus, dragon and blue whales. I also used one old screen print of the sun."




See more pictures of her patchwork armchair.

***

Just wanted to thank Erin Scottberg of Lemondrop for her story on Ikea hacks. Her article picked 12 cheap and easy hacks from this site to show non-Ikea hackers what can be done. Is your hack one of them? Check out her article here.

Steampunking Ivar cabinets

Andrea runs a blog that features steampunking, which seeks to "combine the past and the future in an aesthetic pleasing yet still punkish way". Here is one entry from Rafael. It is a little hack of Ivar cabinet doors in steampunk mod style. The doors that are sanded, stained, coated to allow the wood grains to shine through.





See more of Ivar steampunking.

Fliso's new breezy look

Hälsningar!
Barbro from Uppsala Sweden gives the Flisö parasol a breezy new fabric. Great for the summer, when you'll want something more cheery than the Fliso's original black or red.

"I just took the old fabric away and made a new one in the same size.  5 meters of the new fabric. There are some plastic holders in the corners. I reused them. About an hour's work."

The zen of laptop desks

I'm loving what Siew Lian did to the Babord shoe rack. Perfect for sitting cross legged while sipping green tea.



She says, "My husband recently began working a lot at home, displacing me from the desk and PC. Forced to use the laptop for longer periods, I started to look for a laptop desk.

I had given away my nice pine Ikea breakfast tray with foldaway legs and couldn't find it again in the store, and the Bagn breakfast tray is too flimsy.

I was considering the Benjamin stool hack, but decided against it due to the stool's price in Malaysia (RM59 which is about US$17 but probably equivalent to maybe US$40-50) and the fact that it couldn't be folded flat.

Then I remembered I had hoarded away a couple of Babord shoe racks (about RM10 or US$3 each) to use as shelf inserts and decided to make a laptop tray out of one.

I used one of the rack's two shelves for the tray itself, and the other shelf to make the legs.

I sawed both ends off the shelf at a height of about 15cm for the tray legs. The ends are best for the legs, because they're held together by the dowel rod running through the slats.

I used one of the slats from the remainder of the shelf to reinforce the bottoms of the legs.

Then I sawed eight small blocks off the Babord legs to insert into the spaces between the slats of both the tray shelf and the tray legs. (Saw the Babord legs to fit the width of the gaps between the slats, and the block will not extrude from the top or the bottom of the shelf or legs.)

A bit of glue and some nails later, the three pieces were ready to assemble with small hinges. (I bought some nice brass-finished ones from Ace hardware)

Tip: Don't attach the legs square to the tray because it will tend to collapse to either side. Instead, the horizontal top edge of each leg should extrude from the side edge of the tray by one centimetre or so, so the legs when open are at an angle to the tray. This way when you use it, the legs are "wedged" open.



Another tip: Round off the long side edge of the tray. It's not splinters, just that the square edge can be tough on the under side of your wrists.

I was a bit worried the laptop might tip over when I move so I got a bit of braid, looped it around the dowel rods and ran it through a drawstring cord lock. (This might have been unnecessary, the laptop's rubber pads sit in the gaps between the slats, and the weight of the laptop has kept it firmly on the tray. And don't close your laptop with the braid holding it -- it could break the laptop hinges).

What I love about it is its length. I've always found other shorter trays a little constricting after a lengthy period. Now I can sit (cross-legged even) on the sofa and surf!"

Related hacks:
- Need a laptop desk? DIY your own stand
- Hack a floating laptop table
- Door stoppers for computer shelf