Hackeas: Simple hacks

More hackeas – quick hack jobs you can do easily.

Panel headboard
Markus says, “Once again the ‘as-is’ territory pulled through! I came across this $.99 natural Anno panel curtain. I love the material and knew I could find something useful to do with it. I cut it in half and made two panels with it. Instead of using them as curtains over a window I thought they would look nice just hanging up on the wall above the headboard. It really adds a nice touch to the room and makes the room feel a little taller.

Simple sideboard
Stephen says, “I bought some pieces of the Ikea Bonde system. When I ‘reorganized’ my living room, I happened to have a shelf unit with glass door leftover. I wanted a side board at the wall behind the table. So I thought, ‘Why not make use of the shelf?’ Two brackets, some screws and hanging the shelf sideways did the trick. The hinges keep the door shut.

See more of his bonde sideboard.

Simple nightstand
Stephen says, “I like this nightstand I made better than any stock Ikea ones. It’s two simple elements: a Bravad approximately-cube-shaped wall shelf with Capita 6″ legs. If you use the stock screws with the legs, you need washers or something similar to keep the screws from going all the way through the wood.

It’s probably the easiest hack imaginable, but the resulting product is pretty great.”

Simple knife stash away
With a circular saw, Tricia cuts a slot into her Bekvam trolley and voila! You have a knife slot.

Simple coffee table
Martin says, “I have a Lack TV unit which I now use as a coffee table. I did not attach the original legs but screwed on some casters (height about 1 inch). And that’s it.

Magnetic photo gallery
Maria began looking for interesting, easy-to-make creative solutions when she started decorating her home. Here she shares two of them with us. She says, “I used Gruntal magnetic containers to create my photo gallery and customized fridge magnet. The background for the old photos is coloured paper.”

Quick wall decor
Amy says, “I covered five Malma mirror frames with 1″ square and 1″ x 2″ ceramic tiles. I attached the tiles with Elmer’s glue after layout. “

Kid’s art display
Chica and Jo uses the Jabba laundry holder (hey, this hanger is becoming popular!) as a piece to display art in a child’s room!

Pink trash can
Jennifer, “So…I had this lamp shade from Ikea that did not fit any lamps in my house. I loved the color and shape so I just kept it in my ‘I will do something with that later’ pile. I also had this random piece of wood that I had been practicing a painting technique on. After recently rearranging my studio a little and the only room for my trash can was on the other side of the room… I knew I needed to fix that problem. I combined all three to make my ‘pink trash’ can.

I ripped out the guts of the lampshade, turned it over and glued it to the wood base. I wanted to cover the seam, so I added a cute pink ribbon around the base to hide the glue. I then was left with this ribbon seam because I had not planned it out properly. I grabbed a bright green pipe cleaner and made it into a little pipe cleaner rosette and glued it on. My partner thinks it looks like a Caterpillar that has crawled up to sleep. Go figure… I finally decided it needed something on it, so I came up with the cute play on words of ‘pink trash’. I can now put trash in my desktop trashcan and dump it into the larger trashcan when it gets full.”

See more of the pink trashcan.