Billy Built-in Bookshelves

Materials: 3 Billy bookcases, 3 Billy height extension units

Description: We started with three standard Billy bookcases (11" deep) and three height extension units from Ikea. We wanted to make a wall of bookshelves that had a built-in look to transform our room into a library.

First, we constructed the Billys according to the Ikea directions. We painted the cardboard backing light green. After assembling the bookcases and securing the height extension units, we added trim to customize the bookshelves.

Industrial lamp from Ikea Blanda Matt

Materials: Blanda Matt

Description: Helene transformed a salad bowl into a lamp.

See more of the salad bowl lamp.

~ Helene Bergland, Norge

Romantic Lack

Materials: Lack (EUR 4,99), Stromby frame (51x51 â€" EUR 8,99), Dofta Pot-pourri (EUR 0,99)

Description: Used an old Lack table and a Stromby frame. To keep the frame in place I used 4 screws. This way you can change the look of your Lack every time. Inside the frame I used 3 bags of Dofta Pot-pourri.

MacBook Pro vertical stand

Materials: BRADA laptop support, Keyhole saw, file

Description: I was looking for a solution for a vertical stand so my MacBook would run cooler while using my external monitor and keyboard/mouse. I cut the stand to half of its original width but if you want to use it as a normal laptop stand, you could just cut this slot in the center.

Expedit kitchen storage hack

Materials: Expedit bookcase (Ikea), Expedit door insert (Ikea), Expedit drawer insert (Ikea), Annamoa fabric (Ikea), Solid orange fabric (Ikea), iron-on hemming tape (Ikea), Velcro, scissors, sewing thread and needle, iron, floor shoe trim (Lowe's), nails and hammer, hand saw, knobs (optional)

Description: We moved into a new place and it turned out our kitchen storage space was much smaller than what we were used to. I like to have half of Trader Joe's inventory immediately accessible in my kitchen, so we needed something like a pantry.

Expedit cat litter box

Materials: Expedit and Patrull

Description: My cats litter boxe is not very aesthetic, I wanted to hide it somewhere. Also I hate to see cat litter scattered around. So I thought putting litter box inside something would resolve my problems.
Here is my solution.

Take an Expedit 2x4 (701.030.85)
Assemble top 4 shelves. Use one remaining shelf as a door.
Use one pack of Patrull kid locks to clasp door.
Look at the pics and you will get the idea.

No more cat litters around my room :)

~ Ilker Kopan, Istanbul

Roomy shoe storage

Materials: Expedit, Enje

Description: 2 girls sharing a flat = many shoes

So many that finding a cheap, good looking and roomy storage solution was difficult.

I then came up with this very simple hack:

Customized hallway solutions

Materials: Sideboard: 2 Faktum base cabinets width 30cm, Abstrakt doors high-gloss white, 2 Varde knobs, 8 Capita Legs, piece of worktop from the building center, cabinet cover panels high-gloss white

Description: When we moved into a new flat, I was looking for a sideboard for the hallway, but nothing fitted with the the heater. So we built our own sideboard out of 2 Faktum kitchen base cabinets underneath to hide all the clutter like wireless LAN sender and phone base station. We did cut-outs in the back boards of the cabinets and added power distribution units on each side, to have fewer cords between the cabinets. On top we assembled a color-matching worktop from the building center. This worktop got a little cut-out for the telephone cord, done with a drill. Cabinets have been covered with the cover panels.

Beautiful Storm

Materials: Storm lamp, Nylon thread, hot glue

Description: The paper lamp shade of one of our Storm lamps was lacerated, so I decided to make something more appealing out of the storm lamp.

Apple mirror

Materials: Malma mirror, jigsaw, sand and spray paint

Description: First draw the apple logo on the frame.
Then cut with jigsaw.
Then sand it.
And finally paint with spray paint.

See more of the Apple mirror.

~ aramissenil, Zaragoza ( Spain )

Vintage bedroom dresser

Materials: Ikea Aneboda Dresser

Description: I removed the chunky white wooden handles.
Then I replaced these with some vintage black handles.
For the clear or polypropylene sections I purchased some fun wrapping paper.
I measured the wrapping paper and cut them out to fit the clear sections of the dresser.

Then using all purpose glue I stuck the paper over the clear sections and smoothed.

See more of the vintage dresser.

~ Tracey Meyer, Gold Coast, Australia

Adjustable Desktop Microphone Boom on a budget

Materials: Black Forså work lamp

Description: I needed an adjustable stand for my microphone, but didn't want to fork out the incredible amount of money for an official boom which can be mounted on a desk.

After realising that all these overpriced stands look like extendable work lamps, I decided to have a quick look in Ikea and to my surprise, I struck gold.

Lerberg Shelf Art!

Materials: Lerberg CD/DVD Shelf

Description: I didn't want to spend $100 on artwork that I'll change a year from now, so.... I decided to use fabric art! It's perfect.

To make: cut four pieces of cardboard to fit in shelf. Make sure it's cut large enough to cover opening, but not too large to interfere with the next piece. Wrap and use packing tape to tape the fabric on each piece. Then, use duct tape to tape on the shelf! Hang! Enjoy!

~ Beth, Fort Myers, FL

Löbbo lamp shade up-grade

Materials: Löbbo lamp shade

Description: Original Löbbo lamp-shade was more about shading then lighting. So I have cut it into three pieces, make small holes and hang these pieces under each other. It gives more light now and it look cool in my son´s room.

~ Natalia, Slovakia

Auto On Vika Vanity

Materials: Black Vika Viene table top, Vika Legs, Mirrors, LEDs, Reed Switch

Description: After seeing the previous Vika Vanity on here I knew I had to make one for my girl friend as she did not have a place to get ready in the mornings :(

I bought a black Vika Veine table top, attached the legs, placed (2) 12x12 mirror tiles from Home Depot ($10 for a 6 pack) with velcro and ran the LED strip.

The LED strips have adhesive on the back so it worked out great, very simple. I then wired in a Reed Switch so that when the top is opened the LEDs come on automatically.

Dear Ingo-inspired chandelier hacked from 8 Tertial Worklamps

Materials: 8 X Tertial Work Lamps, 20mm thick board cut into a disc, threaded rods X 3

Description: Always loved the look of Dear Ingo chandelier but could never bear to spend that kind of money so I got creative and voila!

1) Get a piece of 20mm thick timber board cut into a disc and have it stained dark

2) Clamp on 8 numbers of Tertial Work Lamps in equal distance around the disc and have all the wires connected so that it they turn on together (I had a handy electrician friend to help with this part of the work)

Zig-Zag Lack Shelf Bookcase

Materials: Black Lack shelves in 43" and 12"

Description: I found this beautiful bookcase online for over $1100 and decided to recreate it. We started with 5 of the black Lack shelves in the 43" and 4 of the 12" length (you won't need the metal piece that comes on the back). The chrome posts are actually square hollow towel bars from a big box store. We chose to add a bottom shelf that was not in the inspiration piece.

Steps to build:
1. Starting from the bottom, we drilled 3 holes and inserted wooden pegs and glue to attach the 12" shelf vertically to the left edge of the long shelf.
2. We drilled 2 holes 8" away from the right edge. We cut the towel bars to the exact height of the 12" Lack. We used a square wooden dowel a little longer than that and sanded the ends to be rounded. We stuck the rounded ends in the holes with glue and slid the towel bar over the dowel.

3. Repeat steps to the top.
4. Attach L brackets to the back to give extra support to the corners.
5. The most important part is to measure, measure, measure!

~ Laurie, Cedar Park, TX

Billy Golden Hack

Materials: Billy, curtain, gold paint

Description: Put a lace curtain on the back panel, spray with gold paint. You can also colour the frame of each shelf.

~ Cam

Bottom-up Billy

Materials: BILLY height extension unit, BILLY wall shelf, veneer strips, stain

Description: I needed horizontal wall cabinets that would run the length of the wall and give me all the space I wanted without compromising on style. So I took a few store-bought IKEA items and turned them into a one-of-a-kind fully customized shelf unit.

For the most part, the 2 BILLY wall shelf units worked very well with the space. However there's only one option available to buy and that's the 3-shelf option (6 shelves in total). I wanted at least one more shelf to really take advantage of the whole length of the wall.

What I like best about furniture stores like IKEA is that everything's out in the open - you can find inspiration everywhere. The BILLY height extension unit caught my eye because it was the exact same size as one of the wall shelves - only without a bottom.

LACK Shoe Unit

Materials: LACK TV Unit, brackets, screws, anchor bolts, buzz or jig saw

Description: I had two black LACK TV units in my living room for a couple of years, when I decided to go for a completely new media rack.

So I decided to re-use one of the LACK TV Units for a shoe shelf mounted to a wall in the hallway, as the shoes piled up in some corner quite often ;)

I removed the legs of the old LACK TV Unit in the first step. As my LACK was already assembled, I just used some brute force to remove the legs (rotate leg to the left until it breaks. It will break quite easy) and then cut off the leftover metal-screw. You could consider to cut or leave the screws before assembling, if you're not going to use an already assembled LACK TV Unit as I did.

Everything but the kitchen sink desk

Materials: Vika Kaj adjustable legs, Ikea hollow core desktop

Description: I moved in to an old storefront and I needed a kitchen sink counter surround fast and cheap. I ran out to Ikea just before closing to buy a counter top and when I got there I was told ikea had no counter tops left. A fire had destroyed a warehouse and there were none available for love or money. So instead I bought some Vika Kaj adjustable legs and went home to poke around in the garage. There I found an old hollow core Ikea desktop. Since what I needed didn't have to last forever, I cut a hole in the desktop for the sink. Then I polyurathaned it, set the sink in, attached the legs, re-attached the plumbing and caulked.

As you can see from the photo, I needed adjustable legs because the sink is located above a narrow lip of concrete.

~ anne, Los Angeles

Huge Expedit Wall

Materials: Expedit 4x4. Expedit 4x2, Expedit 5x5 (chopped up), you need normal assembly tools, a drill, hammer, circular saw and some guts

Description: We decided on a big storage wall for our children's play-room (and guestroom). After putting two Expedits (4x4 and 4x2) on top of each other we still had a lot of "lost space" on top and on the sides of the case. After watching some hacks on this site we decided to go for it.

We purchased a (used) 5x5 Expedit (for 20 Euros!) just to get the material to complete the hack.

Ikea Skurar plant pots as lamp shades

Materials: 3 Skurar plant pots, old lamp, power drill

Description: One day coming home I spotted a lamp next to garbage containers. I saw potential in it so I brought it home to see if it actually functioned. It did, so I started thinking what to do with it.

The glass shades were broken and ugly so I needed to find something else to replace them.

NORDEN becames industrial bathroom

Materials: NORDEN side table

Description:
1. Buy NORDEN IKEA side table

Adjustable fruitbowl lamp

Materials: IKEA fruitbowl (Blanda Blank) and bedframe (Sultan Lade)

Description: Ikea fruitbowl and bedframe turned into an adjustable reading lamp of 1.2 - 1.6m high.

See more of the adjustable fruitbowl lamp.

~ tim castelijn, netherlands

Custom laundry bag

Materials: Jall laundry bag, fabric, sewing machine

Description: I needed a hamper for our nursery, and wanted something custom that would match the other fabric I'd be using in the room. So, I made a slip cover for the Jall laundry bag!

See more of the laundry bag slipcover.

~ Lauren, AZ

KNUFF - Magazine Holder - Makeover

Materials: Knuff , Svep (handle), walnut stain, black paint

Description: A fast, small, and great makeover for Ikea's KNUFF magazine holder.

First I stained them with color walnut, then painted the end black with water based paint. Waited half an hour, and scraped off some paint. Sanded the whole black side light.

Ribba shaddow box key rack

Materials: Ribba shadow box, Sarita curtain cut-offs, 6 screw in hooks, a ring of aged keys

Description: We're always losing our keys, so we needed a key-rack. Obviously, it had to look good! We found a ring with some chunky, old looking keys which was perfect.

The hack itself took less than 10 minutes. You open the shadow box and screw in one hook on the inside of the frame, in the middle of what will be the top edge. On the opposite edge, outside of the frame, you screw in 5 more hooks.

We put the first hook in at 4,5cm of the side, then spaced the hooks with 4cm between them, which also puts the fifth hook 4,5cm away from the other side.

Then you hang the big ring of keys from the inside hook, you fold the fabric so there's four layers (if it's less, you can still see the back panel through it: ugly!) and you squeeze that in between the passe-partout and the back. Put the entire back in place, secure, and hang on your wall. Find your keys, hang them on the rack, and never lose them again!

~ Naantje, Nederland

Pimp your maskros lamp otherwise it pimps you one day

Materials: Maskros lamp, paper stars

Description: Sometimes my brain does stupid things to me: I thought I'm kind of the only person in the world who bought the Maskros lamp from IKEA. And then I was quite shocked seeing this lamp everywhere - in every barber shop (humans & animals).

So I decided to pimp mine. Before it pimps me.

GRUNDTAL fork light mount

Materials: Grundtal hangers, v-brake spacers, 1 flat washer, M5 bolt and Nut (3 cm long)

Description: Lights are an essential item on every commuter's bike. Most commuter lights, when mounted on the handlebars, only allow you to be seen on the road, not SEE the road. So fork mounts were the answer. Closer to the ground, most of the light is direct to it. I could have gone for one of the many commercial solutions on the market but they are too expensive.

Firstly got a pair of Grundtal hangers from Ikea and some v-brake spacers I had home. If you don't have those spacers just go to your local bike shop, I'm sure they will give it to you for free, or just simply use nuts to work as spacers.

Accessories sorter/earrings organiser

Materials: Antonius basket insert and a drill

Description: Buy Antonius basket insert.

Drill holes along the rim of each compartment at 1" intervals, or as it suits you (I just guessed as I went - this is not high science).

Before+After: Desk to Bench

Materials: Old Ikea desk, Branas Basket, plywood, paint

Description: Katy took her 14 year old desk from Ikea and turned it into a window bench.

Ikea dresser turned register

Materials: HEMNES 8-drawer dresser, black-brown

Description: 1. We spray painted the back of the dresser to a grey metallic finish

2. Made a frame for the back of the dresser out of 2 x 4 (spray painted to match) to support the shelves

3. Mounted bracket rails to the frame

Customised Blinds to match your curtains

Materials: Enje Roller Blinds

Description: Buy IKEA Roller blinds. I chose Enje as they are very light weight.

Cut the desired material to size. I did a band at the bottom the height of the curtain pattern repeat. These blinds are only decorative and will not be pulled down so you won't be able to tell that the material does not go all the way up.

"Hem" the material using fabric glue and an iron to get a straight edge at the top and the bottom. Leave the material at the sides with a good overlap.

Stick the hemmed material onto the blind. Very important tip - put the glue directly onto the blind and NOT the material as it will soak through. Tip #2 place a bin bag under the blind to stop the glue getting onto the surface you are resting on. Tip #3 - remove binbag as soon as you have finished gluing otherwise it will also be stuck to your blind ;)

Leave the blinds to dry - laid out flat.

Trim the edges so there is a cm overlap. Put glue on the blind and fold over the overlap - iron straight - to get a nice neat edge.

Hang the blinds. Enjoy the fruits of your labours :)

~ Kate

Throw turned into rug

Materials: Vilmie Rund throw, non-slip fabric, sewing machine

Description: I'm a poor student, with a rather large living room, and have been trying to find a rug that's big enough but still fairly cheap. I decided to try an experiment and it turned out really well in my opinion.

I used the Vilmie Rund throw and sewed it to the non-slip fabric (that you can get in any fabric store, by the meters).

The Besta-est Wine Rack

Materials: Besta Shelf Unit 60x40x192 plus extra Besta Shelves

Description: We wanted a built in buffet/wine/bar area in our dining room. The Besta product was the best option but it was a bit short at one end. My husband came up with the idea of building a wine rack at the end to fill the gap.

We used a Besta Shelf Unit 60x40x192 and extra shelves we had left over from the other parts of the Besta products we had brought but didn't need. He cut each shelf in half and cut out a slot in the middle of each half. He left one of the side pieces in tact (that is the piece that is up against the wall.) The other side piece he cut slots into at the back so that the shelves slotted into each one evenly spaced.