7 things you can do with the popular IKEA floating shelves

I’ve always loved the LACK, the popular IKEA floating shelves. They are neat, uncluttered and are available in a few lengths and colors. (I do miss it in red, though)

It comes with a concealed mounting and holds up about 18-44 lbs depending on type of wall and fastening. Which means, you probably can’t put more than a few books and decorative items without it crashing down. Unless you add in some reinforcements.

Nevertheless, it’s still an IKEA classic and one of the most loved, most hacked item in here. Let’s see what IKEA hackers have done to their IKEA floating shelves to up the game.

LACK in black and white

Rene added a little floral design touch to her corridor by painting an IKEA LACK floating shelf … and since she loves to paint on walls, she didn’t stop at the mounting point. See her painted wall shelf tutorial.

lack shelf black and white

Lack for industrial bathroom shelving unit

Almost industrial styled bathroom shelves from Kee Klamp fittings and LACK shelves. See more of the industrial bathroom shelving unit.

floating bathroom shelves

Behind the headboard storage

Isabelle had an issue finding bedside tables to fit her bedroom width. The standard MALM bedside tables were too wide. So after looking for several options she decided to use 2 LACK stand alone shelves behind the bed.

It’s in the same color and style as her MALM headboard. Easy to install and really effective.

Behind the headboard storage

The skinny IKEA floating shelf

It floats but it may be too wide. Rick shaved off a few inches for a skinny floating shelf. See the hack.

narrow lack shelf

Tattoo your LACK

Sara Danielsson, an interior architect and designer in Gothenburg, Sweden sends me her IKEA floating shelves with burned-in tattoos.

Ikea floating shelves - wood burn

IIkea floating shelves - wood burn

The IKEA floating shelves were exhibited at Liljevalchs Vårsalongen Formbart 2005 and at the Furniture fair in Stockholm Sweden 2004.

She says, “The idea is that ready-made products are icons of creativity from a few and instead I want to promote the power of creativity in everyone.

I add a new meaning to the shelf by giving the skin of the object burned-in tattoos, that last forever. A step towards emotional sustainability in a fast world.”

Minimalist media stand

This is as basic as it gets. Two LACK shelves joined and legs added for a large, minimalist media stand.

minimalist tv stand

Massive LACK shelf bookcase

And here, Tine engineers this massive bookcase out of LACK shelves and adds vertical reinforcements to hold the weight.

IKEA floating shelves

She says, “When we were looking for shelving systems for our new apartment we liked the IKEA floating shelves best. But even with being extremely creative in order to hit the studs, I realized that they would never hold all of our books without bending or crashing.

So I got some blond wood from the lumberyard and cut it into pieces to slide between the shelves. For the most part gravity holds it all together and the wood pieces are still movable. People assume that it’s a whole shelving system and nobody suspects IKEA!”

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Updated on Jan 22, 2019.