Lack space combiner

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: Lack room divider

Description: Having bought a second hand LACK room divider, it didn't really seem to fit in my room. The thick black beams were somewhat overexposed in comparison to my other furniture. But I did need a piece of furniture to store my administration, stereo and other stuff I could fit in there.

First thing I did was lay down the room divider so it would be less of an eye catcher. Unfortunately my stereo and record player were too wide to fit in the shelves. I lowered the middle shelf, so that I would get just enough extra space to place my stereo units. As the room divider was now horizontal rather than vertical, it had more or less the shape of a piano soundboard.

Ikea elevated DJ booth

Materials: Expedit 8 bay shelf, 42" Stolmen shoe shelf, Vika Adils legs

Description: I researched for weeks and found two ideas that I liked for my DJ setup and combined the two.

For years, DJs have been using the Expedit shelves for their durability and size. I follow with this same thought.

Space Saving Pull Out Fjellse Daybed

Materials: Fjellse Full-size Bed Frame, Sutlan Florvag, wood screws, 4
lag bolts, wood glue

Description: The whole idea for this project stemmed from our need to turn our guest room into more than just a place that gets used by friends and family 2 weeks a year. Most of our visitors are couples, so we needed more than just a standard twin daybed, the width of the space was also just a bit too small to fit a queen size bed. Enter the idea of the pull out daybed.

We started with a Fjellse bed frame and took meticulous measurements and sketched out plans to have the bed pull apart to expand to a full size bed. Using almost every single piece of wood that came with the bed and a 2X6 piece of wood, we constructed the frame. The lag bolds and a few extra wood screws were the only additions.

All-In-One Multipurpose Bathroom Furniture which hides a washer & dryer

Materials: Ikea Personlig Countertops, Kitchen Cabinets/Doors, Socket Lists Optional Sink /Faucet

Description: This is my second Ikea Hack :-)

I want to show you how I made my bathroom more organized by using different Ikea parts making an All-In-One bathroom furniture.

My bathroom was terribly organized,a shower in the corner, washer/tumble dryer in the other corner and a faucet/sink with a mirror in between.

I'd like to keep the room tidy with a minimalistic touch, so I planned to integrate most of the bathroom accessorize on one side of the bathroom, problem was the big washer/tumble dryer which always seemed to be in the way..

Ivar/Aspelund/Malm Loft Storage Bed

Materials: Ivar shelving system, Aspelund bed frame parts, Malm Chests

Description: The problem was a room that only fit the queen sized bed we have. The solution, building a bed out of Ivar shelving, our Aspelund bed frame, and Malm 6 drawer Chests to address both the lack of space and lack of storage.

Tools required:
Screwdrivers (philips and standard)
drill
Ruler/straight edge
T-square
marking object
Safety glasses (that you actually wear while using the power tools)
Optional:
hammer (very helpful)
circular saw

Items we purchased from Ikea specifically for this project:
2 Ivar shelves 17"x 12"
2 Ivar side unit 12"x 49"
4 Ivar shelves 33"x 20"
6 Ivar side units 20"x 49"
2 Observator cross brace 28"
2 Observator cross brace 39"

Items purchased previously from Ikea but used in this project:
Aspelund Bed frame
Skorva Midbeam
2 Sultan Lade (wood slats)
Sultan Queen size mattress

Items purchased from the hardware store:
Unfinished pine cut to 68"Lx 8"Hx 3/4"W
L brackets
Zip ties
Craft wood (pine) 3/8" thick cut to fit the Ivar side unit dimensions
Items purchased from Craigslist:
4 Malm Chests with 6 drawers (color not important)

Engan Room

Materials: Engan bed frame, 1 1/4" angle iron, 1/4" 20 bolts, nuts, and washers, chop saw, drill press, TIG welder, hand saw.

Description: This brings new meaning to the term bedroom. A rather small room for a queen sized bed at 92"x81", 80" if you include base boards. The product dimensions are 61 3/4"x81 1/2". The idea was to take off one of the either headers or footers to alleviate the length needed to fit inside the space. It became a bit more than that later on in the process.

Expedit workstation

Materials: Expedit shelving unit 2×4 / Expedit shelving unit 2×2 / Lagan countertop 1,2m / Ekby Stödis

Description: I was looking for a ergonomic desktop, with a countertop height of 740mm and a keyboard countertop height of 660mm which match my body (I need to implement this last thing) and storage. Make one solid wood was too expensive and I don't have tools to make it so I look at Ikea's catalog.

Rast doubled & dolled up!

Materials: Rast, ikea material & paint

Description: I've been looking for a bedside table/bookcase for my little boys room that they share. I wanted something fun & unique to match the decor, so i got hacking!!

I got two Ikea RAST turned one upside down, drilled 8 holes (two on the bottom of each side of the legs that are going together) & glued 2 dowels on each side into the holes. I then doubled the rast up & they're held in place with 'no more nails' glue & the dowels - they're very sturdy.

Custom Dining Booth From Bookcases

Materials: Expedit Bookcases

Description: We wanted to make a dining booth for our odd shaped corner dining room.

We bought 2 Expedit bookcases in the dark brown-black and planned on turning them face down and making "lids". Turning them sideways made the height better, we could always add baskets or bins in the holes. But then we got a puppy...so we left them empty.

We butted them together in the corner, put a vinyl upholstered foam cushion on top (easy slippage for butts) and stapled upholstered foam to the wall for the back.

The person who bought the house insisted we leave it for them (must have thought it was some expensive custom-made piece!)

Oh yeah, those are Ikea chairs too.

~ Laura G

Use MANDAL to store your LEGO bricks for quick & easy building

Materials: MANDAL headboards, GLIS boxes, binder clips

Description: I needed some space to store my LEGO brick but have them accessible as well when I want to use them. When we came across some MANDAL headboards in the IKEA as-is section, I slowly figured out what to do:

Using binder clips I could hang GLIS boxes to the MANDAL headboard. You have to detach the hinged covers first, then attach the binder clips to the boxes. With the binder clips attached to the boxes, you can hang them easily on the headboard.

Indirect Lighting for MANDAL headboard using LEGO

Materials: MANDAL, DIODER, LEGO bricks

Description: I used the MANDAL headboard to add some shelves to my desk, where I can display my LEGO models. They needed some highlighting so I started adding DIODER led strips on the top and bottom of the shelves.

But DIODER doesn't look too good , so I wanted to hide it, creating some indirect lighting. I built frames using LEGO that you can slide onto the shelf. These frames hide the DIODER. By adjusting the distance between DIODER and the frame, you can control the brightness and the reach of the light beam.

Amped-Up Fixa

Materials: Fixa toolbox, 4-channel amplifier module, hardware, speakers, iPod

Description: For this iPod amp, I emptied a Fixa box of its contents, traced and cut the shape of the amp and power supply, and mounted the parts. Holes were drilled for the knobs, power button, RCA inputs, and speaker jacks installed on the back (all parts from Radio Shack).

A hole was cut in the top of the box for the cooling fan. at 100 watts per channel, this box rocks!

~ Jeff Carter, Chicago

Fa la la la la la ...

Free printable from 12 tribes

It's Christmas and I am taking a day off from blogging, unplugging from the Internet and connecting with everything warm, toasty and family. But I will be back with the usual programming tomorrow.

In the meantime, let's revisit some hacks from Christmas past.

1. The Snow Globe: Make a whimsical snow globe from IKEA wine goblets. Reindeers complete the scene.
2. ISIG ornament glitter: Tired of your blah ornaments. Glamourize them with a little glitter.
3. The Expedit Advent calendar: Book mark this and make your own Expedit advent calendar next year.
4. The IKEA Xmas tree: Who says trees have to be green? Here's one that will light up your nights.

Designer-Lamp from a vase

Materials: BLADET 45 cm

Description: Here my "€žHackâ€" of an IKEA Bladet (45 cm) vase into a "€œDesigner-Lamp".

The "Highlight" of this floor lamp is the use of a Squirrel Cage bulb (in my case a Globe with a Diameter of 120 mm).

The vase "Bladet" is very suitable for this project, because of the thickness of the glass (about 10-12 mm at the ground) which is quite insensible, as you have to drill a hole with a diamond coated hole saw drill in the middle (!) of the bottom.

I have never drilled a hole in glass before and used a very cheap diamond coated drill (...eBay), watched some "€œhow-to-drill-glass-videos" at youtube and it was quite easy.

The required electrical material (screwed tube, screw nuts, a porcelain bulb socket (for screwed tube), cable, light switch and a plug) you should find at your local do-it-yourself-store.

Because I took a squirrel cage bulb I used a dimmer instead of a light switch because it looks very cool, if the bulb is just glowing.

After drilling the whole (in the diameter of the screwed tube), you have to assemble the bulb socket on the tube. Afterwards you fix the screwed tube with each one nut over and one nut under the glass-bottom. If you add rubber washers, you can "move" the tube a little bit if you worked/drilled inaccurate.

As distance between bottom and ground (because of the cable) I fixed five rubber buffers (DIY-store) with double-sided tape.

At least I filled the vase with sand up to the bulb-socket. This looks cool and prevents the lamp from tipping over.

~ Jörg, Germany

A Bamboo Storm...

Materials: Storm Stand Lamp, broken bamboo blind, glue gun & embroidery thread

Description: What do you get when you cross an old Ikea Storm lamp with a broken bamboo blind?

A festive warming glow to illuminate the dining nook.

See more of the bamboo lighting.

~ S., Berlin

Glanza Christmas Wreath Chandelier

Materials: Glanza Light, Garland, Christmas Ornaments

Description: I found this Glanza chandelier at a local flea market still in the box not knowing exactly what I was going to do with it but LOVED it.

So Christmas rolls around and I come up with an idea. I found some white and red bud garland (but any could be used to suit your style) and set it atop the chandelier. In a hanging position I just started hanging ornaments on it until I was satisfied with the results. Plugged it in and Voila!!! This is hanging above my kitchen sink and it makes me happy to do the dishes (well maybe happy is an exaggeration) but still it's lovely. I staged the area with Christmas wrap for affect. The whole thing cost me about ten bucks!

Enjoy!

~ Deborah, sf bay area

BRÄDA & LAGG Portable Tabletop Play Stove

Materials: BRÄDA Laptop Support, LAGG Trivet, DUKTIG Child's Cookware Set, DUKTIG Child's Utensil Set

Description: My friend wanted a play stove for her daughter but didn't want one that would take up floor space.

Inspired by IKEA Hackers' play stoves, I was off to IKEA to see what I could come up with. After spotting the DUKTIG cookware set and utensil set, I wandered the rest of the store to figure out what I could use for the stove: the BRÄDA laptop stand turned around lays flat on a table and the LAGG trivets look like pretend burners!

Hide wallmounted bookshelf with Ikea panel curtains

Materials: Old bookshelf from ikea, Kvartal curtain hangers, Anno Inez panel curtain

Description: We have a quite small apartment, with huge windows. Thus we had a bookshelf mounted high above our TV. To use for storage. We used an old Ikea shelf. That you mount on the wall with the help of metalhangers.

In Swedish we call it an "Konsoll hylla"

But it became quite distracting with a lots of different boxes and different colors. We decided to hide it some way. Our first thought was to use sliding doors.

We realized that they would be to heavy, and above all, WAY to expensive. So we landed on the idea with some sort of curtain. We still wanted the sliding door feeling, and thus we choose panel curtains.

Lack Bedroom Desk or Dressing Table

Materials: LACK coffee table, HOPEN 4-drawer chest

Description: This is a very simple hack. I wanted a small desk in my bedroom, but didn't want an additional piece of furniture. Instead, I made this using pieces I already owned.

I removed the magazine shelf from a small LACK coffee table (article number 401.042.94) and attached it between two HOPEN 4-drawer chests (article number 801.295.89). The dressers are slightly deeper than the shelf, but I view this as a feature instead of a flaw: Lining up the three pieces so the fronts are flush gives a 1.75-inch space behind the desktop perfect for clipping a lamp and running cords.

Princess throne

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: MAMMUT child chair

Description: The backrest is made out of solid metal and polystyrene.
Been glued to paper (wallpaper paste). Then painted with acrylic paint color.

~ Jürgen Behrens, Wiesbaden Germany

Log rack : no more lack of storage

Materials: 3 Lack side tables, power glue, 8 plastic floor tiles

Description: We needed a rack to store our logs next to the fireplace, but the existing models were either too small or too expensive. That's how we decided to use some hacking...

Before assembling the first two Lack tables, we covered the undersides of the tables with 4 plastic tiles each(to hide the brownish colour and protect the surface from scratches). Plastic tiles are easy to adjust to the right size : you just use a cutter and snap it, like chocolate.

Then we made 4 holes in the tiles (2,5 cm from each edge, it's easy to locate) to make space for the screws before assembling the feet to the board, as usual.

We placed the first table upside down, put some glue on its feet and glued the second table (also upside down) on top of the first one. From the third table, we only used the board, which we also glued on top of the second table (no plastic tile covering needed for this one).

~ Mathilde Bruneau, France

Hacker Help: hanging Hutten to the wall

Materials: Hutten, 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood

Description: I would like to hang this wine rack to the wall, but I am not sure it is possible because of the weight of the bottles. I was thinking of strengthening the sidebars with screws in the front.

What do you think?

Thank you for your help!

~ Roser

VIKA BYSKE With A Hidden Shelf

Materials: VIKA BYSKE, VIKA MOLIDEN, EKBY TRYGGVE

Description: I needed a new desk and wanted something modern that would fit in front of the window in my apartment. An Ikea had just opened in my city so I went shopping. The VIKA BYSKE table top had the exact right look to it but it wasn't the right size. I bought it anyways and figured I would give it a try. I selected the VIKA MOLIDEN legs to go underneath. It was too big for the space I wanted it to fit in by about 18 Inches (45 cm).

From Grundtal to Shower Shelf

Materials: Grundtal hanging system, wall anchors with screws, silicone, Grundtal 'S' hooks

Description: Turning the Grundtal hanging system into a shower shelf is easy. Instead of hanging the shelves on the hooks enclosed use the predrilled holes to attach them to the shower wall using wall anchors. Once the screws are in the wall cover the screw heads with silicone to keep the moisture from rusting the heads.

Faktum kitchen cabinet into desks

Materials: Faktum Kitchen Wall Unit, Lagan Solid Beech Worktop, Vika Kaj Legs

Description: I have twin girls who needed a desk each. I wanted solid wood for longevity and aesthetics. The Faktum wall unit has solid beech doors and drawer fronts with beech affect end panels.

I had to cut the 2.4m worktop in half and after cleaning off the supplied wax finished I added to coats of Dulux Diamond Hard varnish.

The wall units were simply screwed to the underside of the worktop. NB the wall cabinet end panels are slightly taller than the wall cabinets and hat to be trimmed. The cut edge is up against the underside of the worktop so is not visible.

Expedit Walk-In-Closet

Materials: 14 Expedit Shelves

Description: Starting off with my first IKEA Hack, so bear with me, first time here,and English is not my first language..

What I want to show you here is how to build a Walk In Closet, using different sizes of the Expedit. The shelves comes original in single column (1x5), double column (2x4), and squares (2x2 - 4x4 - 5x5)

When I was using one whole room for clothes, I wanted to make sure to get most out of it, and I realized that if I used the original measurements of the Expedit series, I would make lots of non valued spaces/gaps on the walls.

The thing with the Expedit parts is that they all have the same depth and height, the length is what makes the difference, this means that if I eg need a single column with 4 boxes instead of 5 which is original, I buy 1 double column (2x4) and 1 single column (1x5) mix the parts and I have the parts needed for single column with 4 boxes... This is basically the thing I did, ending up making squares (4x5) single columns (1x2/1x4) etc

Billy Wall Shelf Video Cabinet

Materials: BILLY Wall shelf, OLSBO doors, MDF for french cleat, various fasteners, table saw, drill

Description: The frustrating part of using Ikea pieces is that they almost never fit A-V components. You find the piece you like, but the gear is too big. You find a piece that will fit the gear, but it is a lot larger than you want.

I already installed a Besta wall cabinet when it occurred to me that you could omit one of the internal uprights from the Billy wall shelf and it would accommodate one of the long Billy shelves.

Stolmen into mid-century unit/space-divider/desk

Materials: Stolmen poles + wood

Description: After carefully deciding the sizes of the shelves and of the "working station", (sketchup plan appeared pretty useful to avoid mistakes) I cut/sand/tint in teak color/varnished each part from one 5' x 5' cherry wood board bought at a local shop. I made them a kind of back to avoid the books from falling off since it was going to be used as a room divider.

Bedtime Reading Lights

Materials: Hemma and Jansjo Lights

Description: The mattress is really thick so light from regular table lamps does not work. I broke the desk and standing lamps down to their bare components and rebuilt them in this configuration.

The 'just-so-I-can-say-I-hacked-something' light

Materials: Ordning cutlery caddy, Hemma table lamp base, cheap plastic folder

Description: I stumbled on this website a few weeks ago, and decided I had to do one. I've seen some very creative ideas, as well as some not-so-much, but I admire everyone for trying.

Perhaps I'll do something else on a grander scale, but for my first hack I just wanted to do something cheap and easy.

Get an Ordning caddy for 2.99 and a Hemma table lamp base for $5.

Now grab yourself a plastic folder (mine was mostly clear, just to diffuse the light.) $0.50 at Big Lots. You can use colored if you want for a different look. Cut it just wide enough to line the inside of the Ordning and it will slide under the lip. Otherwise you could use glue to secure it I suppose.

Fullen on Fullen

Materials: Fullen

Description: The Fullen sink base cabinet is very low compared with the height of my sink, so I thought why not put two on top of each other?

I cut of the side panels on the reduced Fullen so they would fit under the normal Fullen. I drilled new holes for the assembly pins and put it together as normal. This part will be without doors so I left out the part with the hinges.

Rast Nightstand Mobile Kitchen Storage

Materials: Two Rast Nightstands, 4 wheels, 4 metal plates, lots of screws

Description: We needed some extra storage in the kitchen and we needed to keep it in space under the table that would be otherwise out of reach.

I didn't find anything that would suit our needs. The carts were either too tall to go under the table or to narrow to fully utilize the extra space. Also I didn't want anything made out of plastic.

MALM meets NUMERAR Kitchen Island

Materials: MALM, NUMERAR, AKURUM

Description: My wife and I recently bought our first house. Yay! As you can imagine, living in L.A. means housing is very expensive, and we didn't have very much left in our budget to renovate the new house as much as we would have liked to.

One of the things we knew we wanted to concentrate on was creating as nice a kitchen as our dollars would let us. So that meant the usual suspects: IKEA cabinets, cheaper countertops (we wanted Ceaserstone), and less cabinetry. We also kept the stove that came with the home as we did not have the Benjamins to splurge on a new one. We also kept our old refrigerator. The only appliance we bought new was the dishwasher, also from IKEA.

I'd like to show you how we took $559 and made ourselves a pretty cool island that we love.

Expedit slim shift version

Materials: Expedit 2x2 shelving unit

Description: Ever thought that the Expedit series took a bit too much space? My very small hallway had no space for a full version of the Expedit as the front door couldn't open... This is how I did it:

First I marked up the cut plane on the assembled Expedit 2x2, the plane is a bit shifted in this case, as the shoes to the left are bigger than the shoes at the right :)

Little octopuses lamp

Materials: Ikea PS2012 bowl, Variera drawer mat clear, wire, cold light bulbs

Description: Cut the drawer mat in 8 cm wide strips, following the same direction as it is rolled (this way when cut, the strips will get curly)

Then, cut again every strip following the pattern between the dots, alternating strips with one and two dots. Leave the center of the large strip uncut, approx. 8 cm.

Stolmen speaker mount

Materials: Stolmen

Description: I collect a lot of different display items and even used Detolfs raised on some 10yr old Ikea cabinets and loved the setup.

However, in order to maximize the prime display area around the TV (which was already wall mounted) I needed to mount the speakers. Stolmen parts were a perfect match (at the time as I have since changed speakers and rearranged everything again.)

Just a pair of Stolmen clamps per speaker top mounted on the speaker's top and bottom and it was done. I made the mistake of being too close to the wall so it was difficult to install the clamp but I still managed. So give yourself an extra inch away from the wall just to stay sane. Wire management was easy as I simply used rubberbands around the two joints to hold any wires in place.

See more of the Stolmen speaker mounts.

~ Jeff, Toronto

Entertainment Storage in Design Studio

Photo: IKEA.com

Materials: PAX Wardrobe & Nexus Black/Brown Cabinetry & Numerar counters

Description: Design Dilemma: Create a storage solution with SCALE in an Interior Design Studio with 12' ceilings.

Solution: Combine PAX Lyngdal sliding glass door storage (96" tall x 118" wide x 17" deep) ABOVE 3' high x 13' wide Akurum/Nexus Black/Brown base cabinets with Numerar counters. (Non IKEA: 2 U-Line beverage fridges, priced more than the rest of the entire project!)

We are recent empty nesters! Launched the last of our 5 kiddos last spring (yes: all 5 concurrently in college!)

We moved to an ultra cool urban "live/work" loft in Downtown Tulsa. I'm an interior designer, and set up a studio on the ground floor (approx. 800 ft2).

After 25+ years of accumulating, we were forced to "downsize". In this solution I have stuffed several dozen charger plates, assorted dishes, placemats, candles, silverware, glassware and even an entire setup for making s'mores out by the complex's gas fire pit!

Light Up Nose for Rudolph

Materials: STRÅLA, Light Blub, Faux Taxidermy Deer Head

Description: What's a mounted Rudolph head without a light up nose? Just a lame old deer head, that's what! So if you have one of those cardboard taxidermy deer heads (or you can download a template to make your own here) and want to make it a bit more festive, I've got the perfect hack for you.

Here's what you'll need: a strand of battery operated red LED lights (STRÅLA $3), a hollowed out light bulb that is sized appropriately for your deer head, some Krylon Looking Glass spray paint, electrical tape, and wire strippers.

Since I didn't want to be able to see the LED lights on the STRÅLA strand, I sprayed the Looking Glass spray paint inside of the bulb and distressed it with a little water to get a faux mercury glass look.

Prant becomes Alkov

Materials: 3x Prant boxes, 1 Alkov basket, cuphooks

Description: During our first Ikea hack we converted Expedit bookcases into a wall unit with bench seating. But with the Alkov basket being discontinued years ago, we didn't have enough matching storage baskets under the bench seating. Three baskets, just three baskets, I prayed ... many internet searches & shopping trips later and still nothing even close! Then we saw the humble, yet sturdy Prant box.

We first disassembled one of the Alkov baskets. The baskets are held together with metal screws, which made this hack possible. The front piece, back piece and side pieces would be used to complete the illusion that we have 8 matching Alkov baskets under the bench seating.