Hang your TV on a pole

Gerry wraps a TV round the pole. Sexy than this 2-pole version I received in 2006. Guess with the sleekness of LCD TVs nowadays, you can do away with the extra pole.

"I wanted a TV stand to mount my 32" LCD. I fabricated the two rails that attach to the TV from steel shelf bracket vertical rails. It was just a matter of drilling three holes in each rail to match the TV mounting holes and a center hole for attaching to the Stolmen pole. The angle bracket is from a Stolmen clothes rail installation kit.

Asker hanging liquor bar

Here's one from a contributor who rather not be credited. He says, "I used Ikeahacker for ideas a lot when I moved, and thought I ought to at least contribute what I came up with." Thank you! :)

Constrained for space and renting (so not wanting to make big holes in the wall) I decided to hang everything I could in the kitchen.  This included hanging pots and pans over the entrance to the kitchen (careful to hang the small ones over the passage to permit passage for up to 6'3"), and the Asker suspended liquor bar hack.

Knife drawer with glue and wood!

Laura shows off her chops. I can't imagine what all the knives are for. (A ninja? Heh.) I only use one to cut everything, from apples to zucchinis.

She says, "Ikea recently discontinued the little knife-holder plastic inserts for their Rationell drawer divider... just when I was redoing my kitchen and wanted to put all my sharp things away! Anyway, I tried to purchase a ready-made knife holder drawer (but it is really expensive to have it ship to Italy!)

Sliding panel curtain door

I love this idea from Rafaela - replacing the curtain panels with fabric of your choice. Would be great as a room divider, wardrobe doors or to shield away a messy work station.

She says "I did a panel for my closet door using Ikea fabric. I love Ikea's fabric and I wanna to do everything with them!"

The Kvartal hangs the Inger fabric beautifully.

See more of her fabric wardrobe panel. She's also completed some minor hacks, like her Ikea entryway bench and fabric art.

Besta room divider for a loft

Dividing up the room is a key to good use of space. It also does double duty as storage. Kevin does just that with the Besta in his loft.

It's for clothes storage and to screen off the bedroom section of the loft. The only problem was the original Besta configurations didn't fit, being either too tall or short.

Kevin writes, "So instead of using the top cabinet module they offer we used their shorter matching drawer front, attaching them with hinges to a custom built frame we installed on top of the Ikea Besta unit made with basic materials from a hardware store."

A Hol for kitty

We've also seen this hack before. But again, this is using the smaller Hol. Small space kitty solutions, eh? The Hol disappeared for a season but seems like it's back. Whether permanently, I don't know. If you're thinking of hacking a Hol cat box, get it quick. With it going for only $30 a piece, it is definitely a great bargain compared to what's in the market.

Now to the hack. Keri (and Teddy) recently moved to a new apartment, with a fabulous fitted kitchen but no place for Teddy to ... er ... do his business.

Keri adds, "(The kitchen) is too well fitted in fact as there was no convenient nook for Teddy's litter tray as there was in my last place.

Taking Dee's kitty litter hideaway as inspiration I decided to hack one of my Ikea Hol side tables.

I bought a Projs desk pad and cut it down to fit inside the base of the Hol, so I could take it out and clean it to keep Teddy's bathroom extra hygenic. Using a jigsaw, cut a doorway in the side of the Hol, and sanded down the edges so they are rounded. Also fitted hinges so make cleaning his tray out easier.

I'm really pleased with the result. It's not original, but I used a smaller Hol than Dee had used, as my shower room is small, and the Hol side table looks like a laundry basket.

Before cutting the hole I'd checked Teddy was happy with using his tray inside a box by just using it on it's side with no lid.

By the way, when I was in Ikea this weekend I noticed that the Hol storage bench that Dee had used is back in stock, for £45. I know a few of your contributors have used it for some incredibly creative hacks, so thought your site visitors would like to know it is available again, in the UK at least!"

What you can hack with a hol:
- Printer stand
- Dog crate
- Computer case
- Radiator cover
- HPTC box
- Subwoofer box

A cute catbox . . . finally!

Krista joins the many Ikea hackers who finally found a cute solution to a messy problem. It is a more compact version of this PS litter box hack and offers a side entrance, instead of making kitty climb up through a hole in the floor of the cabinet. If you don't have much space at home, this could be it.

Krista says, "So here's our solution - finally - to the litter box issue.

First there is the question - where to put the litter box. Then, how to clean it easily.

And can it be cute?
Can we hide it in plain site?
Without too much odor?

It has taken us lots of moves, lots of trials and errors,and lots of hacking, but finally, we figured out a simple, convenient cat box solution that also fits our decor. Hooray!

Mondrian coffee table

Lee had the idea for a long time but finally got round to designing and ordering supplies for the hack. Basically it is a Lack coffee table with a tile top. Quite a Mondrian, isn't it?

Related hacks:
- Mosaic Lack coffee table
- A touch of glass for the humble Lack side table
- Make mine a mosaic table

Another Bekvam

This was done earlier, now, Elena does her version of the Bekvam.

"The first one was simply painted, partly with stencil and partly free hand,then coated with varnish.

The second one was a bit more complicated, I first started ...

Hackea: Lack bar cart

This one's for the green saint. Say cheers to this easy bar cart which you can put together in half an hour. Thanks to Typhanie.

"I'm sure someone has done this hack before because it's really easy but I'm still proud of what I did. This can be a bar cart or a bedside table."

The Lack side tables are attached with Liquid nails.  

See more of Typhanie's Lack bar cart.

Mikael unwired

Beth gets the wires out of sight on her Mikael desk.

She says, "I just did a nice little ikea hack and thought I would share. It's involving the Mikael computer table on casters in the all white color. I was beyond tired of being able to see the nasty tangle of computer cords hanging down in the back. Cords are a necessary evil, yes, but still evil! So I decided to cover the back of the computer desk to hide them from view.

The many faces of Rickard

Emily has been hard at work modding the Rickard chair for her thesis. I like Citizen Cane, a nice mix of old and new. Pretty solid ideas, I must say.

She says, "I've been hacking away at the $19.99 Rickard task chair. I'm working on my MFA Design thesis exploring ways to extend the useful lives of task chairs, and how to create infrastructure to recover the parts for recycle at the end of the chair's useful life. One big reason people chuck out this kind of chair is that they get bored of it, so to combat that I've been trying to breathe new life into them and make them fresh, pushing the limits of what a task chair can be.  Here are some pics of my hacks so far...

Flower Child chair covered with Ikea's own flower pattern fabric, embellished (by me) with hand embroidery.

Bekvam steps up

A simple tweak from Malin makes a huge difference to the Bekvam step stool.

Just a coat of paint and some gorgeous wall paper for a fresh new look. Love it.

See more of the wallpapered step stool. Also check out the play kitchen.

Vallo pendant lamp

Korneel from Belgium made this lamp from watering cans some time ago and is willing to give it away for free. Check it out.

"It is a hanging lamp, made out of two PS Vallo watering cans. I bolted them together, and installed a lamp holder in each of then. As a result, the center of gravity was above the holding point for the wire, and the thing would not hang straight. I solved this with some 'invisible' nylon wire.

Gorm rat cage

The Gorm is turning out to be ideal as pet cages. Here's another one for rats from Robin.

"My husband and I made this 4-floor cage for our pet rat (who can be seen sleeping on the balcony in the pictures). It cost around $30 for the Gorm shelf unit (5 of the 20x20 size shelves and 4 uprights) and another $40 at the hardware store for the wire mesh, hinges, wood trim that makes the door, and hook latches.

"McQueen" play kitchen

Michele gave her boy a McQueen kitchen. It's a fabulous alternative to the fairy tale play kitchens we've seen so far.

"I got the idea after seeing so many inspiring play kitchens on the Ikea hacker website. It sparked my creativity, and turned out to be a fun project to plan, easy to execute, and as you can see, the results are pretty good.  It all cost me about 95.00 Euros to make, not considering the recycled parts used (old bowl for the sink, an old faucet, doorhandles and fabric.).

I started with two simple Faktum (similar to Akurum) cabinets and two Abstrakt doors, cut a round hole (using a jigsaw) in the side of one cabinet for the sink, and flipped it on its side and connected it to the other cabinet. The bowl used for the sink is no longer sold by Ikea, and is great because it has a lip around the top that hides the uneven cutting job I did. I made a hole for the faucet with a drill, and added the burners (Panna – like everybody uses).

I then reinforced the two cabinets together by adding a rectangular panel behind both, covered with wallpaper and with a square hole cut into it for the window.

For the refrigerator I put shelves inside, added some metal baskets on the door (I don't remember the name) and added a handle.  The oven door was quite difficult. It involved cutting the Abstrakt door in half without chipping the laminate covering. I then used a jigsaw to cut a rectangular hole for the window. This was actually not cut very well, but as it was covered by a wooden white frame (front and back, separated by a plastic sheet), you cannot see how uneven the cut was.  The most important cut in this project was done by a friend who cut a round hole inside the oven door enabling me to put a second hinge (Integral) inside. This was done by a column drill and was easy if one has the right equipment. I then added an opening/closing magnet for the oven door. I would still like to add a light inside the oven, when I find one that goes off automatically after a few minutes.

At this point I added the curtains and some Ikea products – the magnetic bar on the backsplash (Kroken), a couple plastic holders and brushes and stuff like that. I also bought a few, but not many, Duktig products to add to the fun. Needless to say, my 3 year-old boy was excited to receive his "McQueen kitchen" on Christmas day."

How to zest up a children's table and bedroom side tables

Teresa and Caroline (thanks!) tip me on some cool hacks happening over at Apartment Therapy. Check out their dreamy bedside table, fresh and fun Latt table and a Lack window seat.

Children's Latt table transformation
At a glance, the Latt table and seat tops look like fabulous art pieces but in reality, it is an Ikea Annamoa fabric under a piece of perspex. Simple hack but huge wow factor.

See more on AT's ohdeedoh.

Simple wall shoe rack using Babord

Jenise's first hack involves 50 lbs of shoes. Here's what she did.

"When I moved across the country, I had 50 lbs of shoes freighted to me on Amtrack, and that was half of my collection. Since then, I have scaled back considerably.  Regardless, when I moved into my apartment that had the least spacious walk in closet (complete with orange shag covered A/C ductwork going through it), I was definitely in need of some serious shoe racks.

Being a rental, I didn't want to spend a ton.  I was having a hard time staying under $100 with the typical bracket and shelf units sold at home stores.  Having no saw or skills in that arena, my husband and I needed pre-cut shelves too.  We found our cheap fix with the Ikea Babord, which is actually a freestanding two shelf wood shoe rack.  If I remember correctly, the Babord was ridiculously cheap at $5.

So we bought
(1) 3 Babord units, which tallied to 6 slatted shelves,
(2) the last 2 Ekby Tryggve solid wood shelves in the store (for my heels without boxes), and
(3) 12 50-cent brackets (unknown model) from Ikea.

The two wall brackets were from our local Ace hardware, which were cheaper and better quality than the Antonius units from Ikea. 

My husband rigged two of the Babord units to have only single shelves so I could fit my boots and large show boxes underneath.  The rest of the Babord shelves were attached to the brackets using plastic security ties. The 2 Ekby Tryggve solid shelves were screwed to the brackets like normal.  All in all, the total cost for my 8 shelf wooden shoe rack unit was around $30."

A recessed Bertby display cabinet

Rebecca hacks her version of the recessed Bertby display cabinet.

"We moved to a condo with limited space and we needed a display cabinet for some of our collections. We already bought a Detolf  from Ikea but the problem is it has only 4 shelves, which is good for some of our larger pieces. We need a shallower cabinet with more selves for smaller items. We came across the Bertby DVD/CD cabinet and it seems perfect for our purpose. Inspired by another project from Ikeahacker, we cut a hole in the wall and mounted the Bertby recessed in between the studs to save more floor space.

Bench and coffee table in one

It's a bench but Melanie makes it do double (and triple) duty as a coffee table and some times computer table. I like that the "tables" are removable and can be repositioned to where you want them to be.

This is an Ikea hack I made some time ago. As I'm not a big fan of couch tables - and a very big fan of putting your feet up high when sitting on the couch. Though I write a cook blog, I am generally a creative and crafty person: I write, I sew and crochet and I occasionally build my own furniture.

My "coffee table" consists of an Ikea zebra bench (I think it's out of range now, it was in the office department), a white version of Flort remote control pocket and 2 simple U-shaped tables made out of plywood from the hardware store.