ikea hacker

Twin to queen bed

2009-07-03T07:46:00.000-04:00

Jaime turns twins into a queen.

"I turned two Tolga bed frames into a queen size platform bed. I wanted a platform bed and really liked the simple, modern style of Ikea's Tolga, but it is only sold in twin size! I also liked these because they are made with steel truss which is very sturdy and also made with a renewable resource - pine slats. Oh, yah, and it was cheap! I hit Ikea at a sale time and spent well under $70 for both. The conversion was very simple. I cut one of the beds in half with a rip-saw, lined up one of the halves to a whole and then screwed down some plywood on top with a drill. Yay, for muh new bed!"

Landing strip storage with "face recognition"

2009-07-02T07:18:00.011-04:00

AleXX from Munich, Germany has a wonderful idea for a landing strip. The storage boxes with changeable photos are a nice touch.

He says, "I searched quite some time for a new wardrobe, but there are only really ugly or really expensive ones (or even both) on the market. So I created my own wardrobe out of the following items:
1 narrow Ivar shelf
1 Norrebo storage bench
5 Fira Boxes
5 Lillholmen Hooks
5 Österbymo frames
1 Alvine Tapet curtain
1 Irja curtain rail
1 Sandnes shoe storage
2 older magnet boards from Ikea
1 piece of plywood (covers for the Ivar)
...and plenty of screws

I varnished the Fira boxes with a clear coating. I removed the stands from the photo frames and picked two holes in the back cardboard. I pinned two screws through them and drilled holes in the front of the Fira boxes, then mounted the frames with the screws and nuts. So it is possible to change the pics, when the kids grow older and my hair gets gray."

The rest you can view them pics on his Flickr set.

Other landing strip hacks:
- Slim and sexy entryway table
- Stark hall unit divider
- Hat and coat rack
- Narrow shoe cabinet for landing strip

A TV unit rerun

2009-07-01T07:10:00.000-04:00

Elodie gives her old TV unit a new burst of life. Again.

"This is a third life for my TV furniture. At the beginning it was 'birch'. I transformed it in brown and flashy colors, and some years later I painted it in white and then I put a shiny varnish. A friend of mine call it the Apple furniture! I'm happy because I've got it for 7 years now, and I still love it because it changed his look several times."

Cheers, it's a Kegerator!

2009-06-30T07:17:00.003-04:00

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!"

Compact music studio

2009-06-29T07:46:00.000-04:00

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

Add light to this watering can

2009-06-26T07:56:00.001-04:00

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!"

Cosy nook for the bed

2009-06-25T07:20:00.000-04:00

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

All it took were some curtains (also from Ikea) instead of doors, some baseboard installed as crown molding to bridge the gap between the top of the wardrobes and the ceiling, and a wooden header to make 'em look a lot less like doorless Ikea wardrobes and a lot more like a soft and cozy sleeping nook that just happened to triple our closet space."

ta-dah!

Check out the full bedroom makeover here and whatever you do, don't miss their house tour. It's so so awesome.

Floating computer desk

2009-06-24T07:12:00.001-04:00

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."

Bookcases to bay window seat

2009-06-23T07:33:00.001-04:00

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.

Ikea strainer Wi-Fi antenna

2009-06-22T09:10:00.000-04:00

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.

Hackea: A $2.99 laptop stand and more

2009-06-19T07:26:00.000-04:00

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."

A bright pot of plant
Timo find another great use for bright breeze Ikea lampshades. He says, "I had the idea when I was walking through the section with all the lights and so on. Well, I saw these lampshades and wondered how they would look as flowerpots, because I needed some. I removed the metal inside the lampshades and cut out a circle of multiplex. The inner pots are surrounded by a bag so the water won't damage the lampshades or my floor."

A row of foosball fun
Erik V rounded a few foosball players in to hit up the fun.

He says, "I have a Grundtal rail in my kitchen and to make it more fun and practical (instead of those awful meat hooks that you can buy separately) I got a couple of wooden foosball players and just put them on the rail before putting it together and screwing it to the wall.

You need:
- 1 Grundtal kitchen rail from Ikea
- 5 or 6 wooden foosballplayers from the ... uhm ... foosball supply store

Varde block kitchen cart
S. Sanchez-Wade wanted a kitchen cart that didn't cost a fortune, but didn't want it to look cheap.

He says, "So I start searching and all the ones I loved were at least $500.00! I guess the John Boos carts were out of the question. Here is one I was attracted to and especially this one. Not a J. Boos, but I liked the look.

So I went to Ikea and found one that had the lines that I wanted (and the stainless steel to match my appliances: Varde Kitchen Cart and I hacked it to kinda look like the expensive ones. The top is well oiled with mineral oil!"

Ikea home for chicks

2009-06-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

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.

Hand embroidered Svenning chair

2009-06-17T12:46:00.000-04:00

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."

Stockholm shadows on the wall

2009-06-16T13:13:00.000-04:00

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.

An armchair to go

2009-06-15T07:45:00.000-04:00

All the furniture in Andrew's house are on wheels. Hmm ... certainly makes cleaning easier. For us, he gives the Tullsta Armchair mobility.

He say, "Basically, I remove the stick legs from the Tullsta and replace it with a wood 2x4 box and Rill casters to put the armchair on wheels. 95% of the stuff is Ikea, and can be bought currently. I've done this to 4 of my Tullsta chairs, and it's a real simple hack."

See more pictures and instructions for the Tullsta on wheels.

Hang with these hackeas

2009-06-12T07:44:00.000-04:00

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.

See more of her dress-up hangers.

Hook up with colours

Robert changed a seemingly "useless" product into a row of colourful hooks. He says, "I made a nice Ikea hack and just hope they release it themselves because the original product is totally useless as it is now (in my opinion). At the Ikea-family dept (in Amsterdam) they sell 5 wonderful colored hooks (Njuta, not found on their site) on a ring(?) and I just used that hooks and some curtain rail stuff to make a nice hall rack!"

Coat hanger

Laura found a great way to hang up her coats. She says, "I needed something to hang coats and jackets near the door in the non-existent hallway of my super small new home. The problem was that I can't make holes on that wall because there is a sliding door and on the other wall there are electric panel and other stuff that I
can't cover. In addition there isn't enough depth to place a piece of furniture that stands up on its own without being fixed to the wall. The last problem is the lack of money.

So I drilled two holes above the structure of the door and put a Komplement multi-use hanger on two hooks. I used a set of Bygel S-hook to hang stuff and placed a piece of Lenda fabric behind, just to make it more colorful.

It needs improvement, expecially on the 'hooks' side, but it works really well, I like it and it is incredibly cheap.

Hang up the bottles
Rob finds a way to hang up bottles. He says, "I simply super glued a metal washer to the cap of a prescription bottle, and yes it must be super glue - all others I tried failed (Elmer's Glue All, any white craft glue, Hot glue gun) But the super glue worked.

Then I take a Ikea Asker magnetic knife holder. And hang them up, with the little bottles filled with staples, paperclips, small nuts and bolts - you name it."

A Bekvam and Molger bathroom remodel

2009-06-11T07:07:00.003-04:00

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?

Outdoor cooking with the Varde

2009-06-10T07:20:00.002-04:00

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."

***

Taking the Y out of D.I.Y.
Ikea is putting on its clever advertising hat again. This time its for their assembly service in Germany. I've heard many complaints about their assembly instructions (though I think they are one of the best instruction sheets I've ever seen), so the jokes on them for this campaign.

Click to view 2 more ads on Forsby and Billy. Thanks, Alexandra!

Venny Notebook Bag

2009-06-09T07:05:00.002-04:00

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."

***

Ikea's pricing error
Did you buy any Akurum cabinets from August 1, 2008 to May 2009? Then dig out those old receipts and see if you've been overcharged. According to this 3-On Your Side report, "over 150 cabinets were being rung up at the register for a higher price than what was being advertised in the brochures and catalogues." Not good. We know how easy it is to lose track of the prices when you add on hinges, knobs, doors, shelves ... but hey, we thought that's what computers were for. Good news is, Ikea has corrected the "technical glitch" and will refund the difference if you have been overcharged. Click on this link to see all the cabinets affected by the pricing error.

Catching the sun with the Solig mobile

2009-06-08T11:35:00.000-04:00

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.

Two summer totes

2009-06-05T07:33:00.016-04:00

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). One Solig runner will make two totes. The fabric is the perfect width. The inside is lined with water-proof and easy to wipe clean duck-tape - making it an ideal lunch tote."

Can't get enough of totes?
See this all-day tote from Lotta Jansdotter's pattern, reusable eco tote and shopping tote.

Summer sizzles!
Summer items like the Platta decking is back. This is the time to load the cart with them if you want to make hacks like this window sill, spa mat, or bathroom flooring. Remember to check out Ikea's Summer collection too. Aah ... they always make me miss the salty sea and sand between my toes.

3 Ikea hackeas with stickers

2009-06-04T07:05:00.000-04:00

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.

Bat hacking

2009-06-03T07:59:00.000-04:00

This is a cute one from Scirius. He bought a toy bat from Ikea. Only problem was, it couldn't close its wings.

He says, "I wanted it to close its wings and I also wanted to hang it like I showed in my blog here. It's kind of stupid but Ikea hacking anyway."

See instructions here.

Varde goes on the LA Times

2009-06-02T07:47:00.002-04:00

Michele tips me on this glammed up Varde shelf featured on the LA Times. Love the arty back panels!

See more here.

Zigging the zag in Lack

2009-05-29T14:47:00.001-04:00

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."