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.
ingenius and awesome!
ReplyDeleteits just clucky!!!
ReplyDeleteToo cool! I grew up raising chickens and have never seen anything this awesome. Great job.
ReplyDeleteI cant see chicken poop anywhere - are you sure those are real chickens?
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic! But I wish the pictures were larger ... and more of them. Any chance of giving us a link to the makers' web site or photo site to see more?
ReplyDeleteI've been intrigued with urban chickens and would love to replicate this coop!
I'm EGGcited to make a chicken coop. I don't give a cluck what anyone says...
ReplyDelete¿uʍop ǝpısdn dooɔ ʇɐɥʇ sı
Awesome job!
ROFL: "urban chicken farming".
ReplyDeleteI want to start an urban chick farm now too!
ReplyDeleteThe link to the Trofast storage unit is broken (looks like the problem is on Ikea's end), but you can still see the thumbnail & price at this link: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=Trofast&pageNumber=0
ReplyDeleteRegardless, that's a very nice looking coop. Makes me wish there was an Ikea in my state. :-) I was thinking about "hacking" a child's playhouse to make a coop.
This coop is just genius. An honestly to buy a coop this nice you'd pay hundreds more. Totally smart, nice, and so quality. I'm going to save this page for my future coop! Thanks
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing, I'm really, really impressed.
ReplyDeleteWonderful chicken coop! Looks fairly fox-proof too. I might have to try it myself.
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite IKEA hack yet!
ReplyDeleteA Constructed Reality
Wow. What was the total cost? Was it something someone clueless about construction (me) could tackle?
ReplyDeleteAll --
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind feedback. I'll post more pics of this on my Flickr feed later tonight. There'll be before and after shots.
@Marleen, It might be fox-proof, but it's not dog-proof. We used the green plastic chicken mesh. I am planning on replacing that with wire mesh to protect them better (our four original chickens were killed when a foster dog broke into the coop; three new chicks have since taken their place).
@The Homely Animal @woof nanny,
My wife researched pre-cut coops that you'd just assemble yourself, and those were $800-$1k. She came up with the idea of going IKEA to save money, so we took a trip and finally landed on the bunk bed. We considered other options but this (with the shelves for beds) was by far the best, in our opinions. All said, we did it for about $400.
The best part was coming up with creative ways to use the leftover wood. :)
So I have to know... what city are you practicing your urban chicken farming in? I honestly think my neighbors would kill me (or the chickens!)
ReplyDeleteAll -- I've uploaded the earlier photos I could find along with larger versions of the ones in the post here: http://is.gd/1bmX7
ReplyDelete@evildorkgirl, we're in Arizona. City code allows chickens if you're 80ft or more away from the nearest neighbor. :)
Now if only you could get the chickens from Ikea.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? Except it might get a bit messy putting them together, and what if there were parts missing? :)
ReplyDeletecan you post your plans online for this? The pictures are awesome, but it'd be nice to see the details. We would DEFINITELY be interested in building this, and we shop at IKEA all the time anyways. :)
ReplyDelete@Aaron:
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. We didn't have any 'plans', per se, but I'll markup the manual for the bunk bed and show you the changes we made.
Excellent plans for those wanting a complete beginners guide with video check out http://makeyourownchickencoop.com/howtobuildachickencoop/
ReplyDeleteYou're my kind of people.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part is the wine rack for the stairs.
Also, do you have a link to your Flickr feed for more pics?
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a bunch of irritating links to stuff to buy, but nothing to you or your site.
The one thing you need though is roosts. If all they have is the nesting boxes to sleep in you will get a lot of poopy eggs.
ReplyDeleteYou might also want to rig something up to make it darker in the nesting boxes. otherwise this is super! I won't show my chickens or they will get jealous.
Absolutely wonderful. I wonder if this is modular enough to expand for more chickens just by increasing the number of ikea parts...
ReplyDeleteDitto Wendy's comment about a direct Flickr link. I'm not finding it. thanks. AS
ReplyDeleteTotally ingenius. I had come across this while searching online and wow this amazing chicken coop made totally out of Ikea! For a moment I thought Ikea is selling Chicken Coops. Lol :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you can get some nice plans to build your own chicken coop here as well: Chicken Coop Plans
That is awesome. Who needs a chicken coop guide with your skills. You could probably sell those.
ReplyDeleteYou can have chickens in alot more cities than you'd think. Mine (lakewood, CA allows 5 hens. Long Beach CA even more, no limit, they just can't be "a nuisance" and in Huntington Beach, CA i know they allow 6 hens/house
ReplyDeleteWhere is this located? I'm looking for chicken coops to film for a cable network's website in the form of webisodes. They want cool and unusual coops. You can reach me at
ReplyDeletecynthia@bciitv.com
You totally inspired me! We just finished our chicken coop based on that bunk bed, even though it'll be a few more weeks until the chicks can live there. I love that once you have the bed frame up the rest becomes completely customizeable. We sloped the roof (corrugated roof panel) down so water would fall onto the lawn. Plus, we didn't have to buy additional wood at all! All the mattress support slats were used around the sides and to make the nesting box door.
ReplyDeletehttp://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AatWLNo2cNmTrg&emid=sharview&linkid=link4&cid=EMsharview
leanne, your coop looks great. Glad we could lend a creative hand. You're right -- that bunk bed does lend itself well to this use.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any help to you now, you might consider putting something on top of the shelve unit. Our chickens have taken to sleeping up there, and although they haven't started laying yet, we're afraid they'll just do it up there instead of in the beds.
At any rate, congrats, and good work!
Aaron - we're actually considering moving the nesting boxes to the outside of the coop (we'll probably have to trim it down to 2 boxes instead of 3). Both to give the chickens more room (even though they aren't in it yet) and to prevent them from sleeping - and pooping - on top of it.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! Lots of great chicken information on backyardchickens.com -- hundreds of plans with pictures, breeds, breeders, forums, etc. This site has many many different topics and you can find everything you need to learn how to keep chickens. My husband and I built a coop into the back 4 x 8 feet of our garden shed by putting a wall up and a window and door, with attached run. On mypetchicken.com you can compare breeds and order as few as 2 chicks, instead of the ususal 25 you need to buy at the big hatcheries.
ReplyDeleteNow those are some styling shickens!
ReplyDeleteLove it!
ReplyDeleteThat is absolutely phenominal!! I may need to make a couple of those myself this spring!!
ReplyDeleteHerefordlovinglady from BYC here, pretty swanky coop your chicks are sporting...shout-out to all BYCers....
ReplyDeletethere is nothing more satisfying than getting eggs from your backyard. Fabulous and sleek setup! Deise
ReplyDeleteHey Aaron, GREAT coop! I heard about it on poultrycommunity.com If you ever have ANY questions about what to do with your chickens (disease, feed, predators, whatever) you should come check it out. There are tons of wonderful chicken folks on there with lots of knowledge. I voted for ya...hope that helps!
ReplyDelete~Ted From Tanchanda Farm Camden, TN
A lovely coop. It looks purpose built and bought from Ikea. I guess it is a bit dirtier now!
ReplyDeleteGlad we could lend a creative hand. That is awesome. This project inspired me totally. It was a very nice post. Thank for sharing.
ReplyDeletebrilliant!
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd seen this before I built mine from scratch!
What's the roof made from?
ReplyDeleteWhat size of plastic bins did you use for the nest boxes? Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is the coolest thing ever, I can't wait to get started on my bunk bed coop!! How is your coop working out these days? Have you made any modifications since then?
ReplyDeleteTotally an awesome idea! I might just have to make one! Do you sell the PDF instructions?
ReplyDeleteholy cow. with 8 chicks awaiting a home (they are in the house right now) I am going to get busy! You have imagination!
ReplyDeleteGetting ready to start "urban farming" and so happy I found your site! You did a great job, and my husband and I are heading over to Ikea tomorrow! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an idea, I have to say furniture and its beautiful and amazing.
ReplyDeleteNice furniture for the chickens.
ReplyDeleteLOVE!
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd seen this before I started construction on my coop! This is an AMAZING hack, and the coop is really lovely!
ReplyDeleteAll Ikea goodies are too cute. I also want to purchase for my cute chicks. Please suggest me some tips.
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool!
ReplyDeletefantastic idea! now just need some flat pack chickens, i hear they come in an egg box, lol
ReplyDelete