Gill pulls a perfect pint with this hack.
"My husband and I took an old commercial fridge, and refinished it, to become a kegerator. We hit the As-is section of Ikea for the counter top (paid $30), and the rails are actually Enhit curtain rods (not on website), marked down to $4.99. Works perfectly!"
Matt downsizes his studio gear with a rolling drawer system.
He says, "For the longest time I was using 2 tables for my studio gear and it wasn't until I moved to an apartment that size became an issue. So I figured out a way to put all my gear together right in front of me. What we have here is 9 Vika Curry legs and 2 Vika Amon table tops and a home made keyboard pull out shelf with drawer rollers.
First I cut one of the table tops 15'' length ways. I took 4 vika curry legs and cut them down to 14''. These support the half table top above. I used a drawer roller system to mount my pull out keyboard under the table and I added a 5th leg in the middle to help support all the weight."
Related hack:
- James' minimalist music desk
Carlo gets arty with the Vallo watering can.
He says, "From the very first time we saw the Vallo watering can, we love its design. Too nice to be only a watering can! So here is our ValloLight Lamp!
We use the white Vallo ($1.99) and Ikea Parlor Glass Decoration (transparent ones, $1.99).
To achieve good results, it is very important to pay attention to the little things such as wire, switch and so on.
Please note that the Vallo is not heat resistant, so to avoid fire hazard, it is better to use cool light sources. The Ikea Parlor stones give a nice effect to the lamp and more importantly, increase the stability. Without them, the Vallolight is too light!"
Dear John and Sherry Petersik,
If you ever need a housesitter, call me. ~ Jules
Sherry says, "Back in January we used a pair of Pax wardrobes (along with the customizable Komplement interior fittings) to create to 'built-in' closest in our bedroom. When we first installed them they looked pretty ghetto... and a bit too Ikea. But with a little effort, we persevered and pimped them out to look like an expensive custom built-in.
before
Ikea moves in
ta-dah!It's bliss when you find something (cheap, especially) and it fits in perfectly. Christian gets just that with his bargain buy and ends up with a floating computer desk.
He says, "I got this Vika Blecket with Vika Curry legs second hand from this guy on craigslist. Now, I have this closet in my living room that I removed the sliding doors with the intent of putting a desk in there. When I got this Vika desk home, I found out it was the perfect size for the closet.
So this was great, but there seemed to be a little wobble with the desk, also I am a big fan of higher, standing desks so I thought I could do that with this. My first idea was to have a sort of 'platform' built that would just raise the table up, but one day I suddenly realized I could just create a little border around the closet walls (maybe an inch thick) and I could rest the table top on top of the pieces of wood or whatever.
So I went to Ikea to get a chair (you know, for sitting), and I got lucky by finding a few spare pieces of wood in the as-is area that were the perfect size for this project. I went home and after much experimenting I mounted the pieces to the closet walls, removed the Vika Curry legs and rested the Blecket right on there.
Under the table you will see a Trofast system that fits quite well underneath and works great as drawers for stuff.
The lights are Larga lights mounted to the closet shelf. The small table thing that my monitor is on is a Viktor shelf attached to ... legs... I can't remember the name of them!
Oh and I took the old Vika Curry legs and put them on a spare Lack side table that I had. Made this cute little table thing."
Cindy always wanted a window seat/bay window thing in her living room. Here's how she fulfilled her wish with a few Traby bookcases.
She says, "I adapted some Traby bookcases to form a window seat that doubles as a daybed for visiting guests!
The units are basically different size Traby shelf units doubled up so that it's wide enough to be a bed. I left out the back wall to the front set of shelves so that the hole goes all the way through. The holes can accommodate Bastant baskets.
Worth catches more than you think possible with an Ikea strainer.
He says, "It's certainly nothing new as it's been done before, but I'm still kinda proud of it. It involves the Idealisk strainer.
I bought one at the Ikea here in Moscow where I'm studying abroad for the summer. I made a Wi-Fi booster antenna with a USB Wi-Fi adapter.
See more of Worth's parabolic strainer Wi-Fi booster.
A laptop stand for $2.99
A cheap Vink CD rack can be used to prop up your laptop too. The connecting portions are snipped off and filed down. Erik M says "the laptop doesn't touch the spikes of the cut metal in my case (I use a 14"). And it's for display only, to raise the screen to the height of your eyes and help with the passive cooling of the computer. I use an external keyboard and mouse."
See more of Erik's laptop stand (in Spanish).
Lova this!
Zoe lights up the Lova leaf canopy. She says, "I bought the Lova leaf canopy at Ikea and it was to dark on my bed after I installed it. I bought a cord and socket from Ikea and made it into a really big light. I ran the cord up the stem and along the main vein. I tied it to the leaf at the places that the other veins crossed and left holes. I could have easily taken the green bag from packaging and cut it and tied it up with those but I wanted some pink accents."
It constantly amazes me how Ikea hackers find new ways to use good old Ikea goodies. Aaron Bell and wife Corinne design a cozy Ikea home for a few cute chicks.
He says, "My wife and I recently got into urban chicken farming and built a coop for them almost completely out of materials from Ikea."
We used the following Ikea products:
- Mydal bunk bed
- Trofast storage unit with shallow drawers
- Vika Oleby legs
- Gorm bottle rack
The coop frame is made from the bunk bed. We hacked the supports to make mounting the roof easier, and used the leftover slats from the top bunk for the side paneling. The storage unit with drawers is being
used for the chicken's beds, and I used more leftover wood to construct the hinged door on the side to make egg collection easier.
The front door is also leftover wood from the bed. Once the frame was assembled, we weatherproofed the frame, as the bunk bed wood comes unfinished from Ikea. Also, we laid down plywood for the floor of the
coop, using slats for support.
The bottle rack made a very nice (and cheap) ramp up to the beds, and the legs provide extra support for the heavy storage unit.
The only non-Ikea pieces we used were the mesh, plywood/beams for the roof (which is 3x coated with reflective paint in an attempt to keep the heat out), and the hardware for the hinges and latches.
We hung the feeder and waterer from the roof with a very simple washer / bolt / s-hook hack job. All told, this project took a month's worth of weekends, and was a blast to complete.
Helga gets crafty with her Svenning chair. The fabric is simply gorgeous.
She says, "I embroidered some fabric I got from the offcuts bin in John Lewis (a big chain of department stores in the UK, who sell good stuff, including lovely fabrics). Then I used it to recover my Svenning Desk Chair, which was getting worn and very, very uncomfortable. I also added some new foam, because the old stuff was so thin."
Kalle casts pretty shadows on the wall with this Stockholm bowl.
Kalle says, "It's a wall lamp with a decorative light cast on the wall itself. The lighting effect is visible at daytime but quite spectacular at night and the 'wall flower' is well over 1m large.
The ingredients are:
- Stockholm stainless steel bowl
- 35W reflector bulb
- Electronic dimmer
- Lamp mounting kit and lamp wire
The light fixing is mounted through a drilled hole in the center of the bowl with ordinary light fixing material. The bowl is hard stainless steel and pretty thick, so be warned that the drilling takes a while.
It is mounted with a standard screw in one of the center holes in the leaf-pattern where it is almost invisible.
All the furniture in Andrew's house are on wheels. Hmm ... certainly makes cleaning easier. For us, he gives the Tullsta Armchair mobility.
Hook up dresses
Andi gets some Bygel rails and hooks. "I used them in my daughters room to hang up dress-up clothes so they are in easy reach for them but organized for me!" Clamping them tight is all you need to do.
This bathroom remodel is from Tricia, who claims to be the only woman she knows who sleeps with a chop saw.
Tricia tells me, "I live in an old duck-hunting cabin which was gentrified, so I am in process of de-prissying it.
I hacked a Bekvam kitchen cart to make a vanity for the small sink in an unbelievably tiny bathroom.
I reduced the depth and cut new grooves for the angle brackets (shallow cut with a circular saw). Reduced the depths of the shelves, and halved the length of the centre slat in the top shelf to give room for the waste. for symmetry I put both wheels at the back. Two coats of polyurethane.
I also used Molger benches to make cupboard doors and a bath panel. The Molger benches can be made into practically anything. That bathroom is all walnut, teak and mahogany – I made the cupboard casings from mahogany with veneer inlay over the screw heads. the doors swivel on pins top and bottom rather than hinges.
The vanity with the larger Hollviken sink was a dining buffet."
Awesome bathroom, ain't it?
David takes the cooking outdoors by hacking a Varde sink unit into something better than a BBQ grill.
He says, "When we moved to California, our apartment had an electric stove, which we hate. Also, we wanted to be outside on the patio to enjoy the weather. We're vegetarians, so we don't actually grill that much. So we did this instead. We got a Varde sink unit on sale, enlarged the precut hole a bit and dropped in a propane cooktop designed for an RV that I bought off eBay for about $25. Add a tank, and we're cooking with (propane) gas! The hole for the faucet is still there. I'm trying to decide whether to fill it with wood or to put some metal cup thing underneath so that it can be an integrated place to dispose of matches used to light the burners."
Jimmy from Belgium takes to needle and thread to sew himself a netbook bag.
He says, "Yippie, I got myself a 10’ netbook, but how do I hold on to it as long as possible without anyone else stealing it? Well, you can get a obvious netbook bag or sleeve, but that says 'Hey, inside is a netbook'. Instead I chose to disguise it. I took a Venny Placemat folded it double, sewed the long side and bottom (by hand as the misses said the fabric is to thick for her machine!). Then I attached the loops side of velcro on the inside, the hooks part on the outside. Now I can slide the netbook in it (without scratching in on the velcro), close it up and stuff it in my 8€ decathlon backpack. Easy, quick and the netbook is well protected against scratches and masked for those with less good intentions."
Doro adds a nice touch of colour to the summer Solig mobile.
She says, "I fell in love with the Solig mobile. But I found it too graphical with too little colours. Therefore I added some glass beads. Now it's perfect for me. simple but fanciful."
See more on Doro's blog.
Need a summer tote? Here's one (two, actually!) that you can make from a Solig table runner. Thanks, Nicole.
She says, "I made a tote using the Ikea Solig table runner, stapler and duct-tape (and a little inspiration from Jodi Kahn's book: Simply Sublime Bags
, reusable eco tote and shopping tote. Sian Astley gets busy with stickers for a quick new look.
1. A Lack table painted Dulux Pale Walnut, decorated with Ikea stickers and then varnished.
2. Morebo doors filled with Brain Yates butterfly flock wallpaper.
3. Damaged white table repainted, Ikea stickers, then varnished with clear gloss.
This was also used for a photo shoot.
before you shop. By simply starting from here, you'll tell Amazon to throw a few coins in my tip jar, with no change in your shopping experience or total bill.
