wall mirror art

katie sends in her arty wall decor of 9 malma mirrors. a quick and easy way to decorate a wall.

"7 painted chocolate, 2 painted ice blue. i am cheap and live in an apartment so instead of going about doing this mirror in the proper way using nails and some 2x1, i tore up an ikea under-the-bed box and used the thin veneer and duct tape as a method of fastening the mirrors together. it took all of an hour once i settled on the layout and it's been up on my wall for over a year and half with no problems at all."

[added 27 May 2008]

patti's version
she spray painted them and screwed them together.

frame up clock

a cute clock from maria, using the ribba frame, a kort art card and an alarm clock.

first, cut a hole in the backing wood of the ribba frame and attach the clock to it. then, puncture a small hole in the kort art card for the clock needles and you're set.

see more instructions for the ribba clock.

other clock hacks:
> bamboo dish clock
> time bomb clock
> rusch clock's new face
> international analog clock

ikeahacker forums - now hosted at ikeafans

early last month, i pulled the plug on the ikeahacker forums due to spam and time commitments. but hey, when it's a good thing, you can't keep it down.

susan from ikeafans.com wrote me a few days ago and suggested a collaboration. i jumped onboard immediately because ikeafans is a wonderful community, moderated by people who know their ikea.

so it is with much glee that i'm announcing this ... the ikeahacker forum is BACK!

all the answers you've been aching for - the right way to cut a lack shelf, replace a kitchen door hinge, dismantle a malm bed, find the right sized nuts and bolts - you now have a pool of over 17,000 ikeafans to help you figure it out.

feel free to post questions, exchange ideas, preview your hacks in progress. DulcineaK, otherwise known as the answer chick, will be moderating the forum. i will pop in and chime in my 2 cents whenever i can.

click here to get to the forum page. you will need to register to be part of the community. go join. it's as toasty as a cinnamon roll in there.

hugs to susan and james for making this possible!

need a wooden deck for your balcony?

i love mattias' idea for his balcony flooring. so simple yet effective.

"i have used gorm shelfs as floor decking for my balcony. i just added an extra beam in the middle of every shelf. of course some treatment oil is recommended, but it's still a rather cheap and easy way to get a nice balcony floor."

home photography backdrop

shannon, who takes lots of photos at home, has a great idea for a permanent system to hang photo backdrops.

"i began with the deka curtain wire kit from ikea. i mounted the end units to the top of our entertainment center and strung the wire across. luckily it was exactly the right length.

i then attached the clips that came with the kit and i can hang any color backdrop that i want for an in home photo session.

you don't even notice that the wire is there unless we point it out to you."

see shannon's home photography backdrop.

diy a captain's bed

a wonderful find on apartment therapy. killorn sent in instructions for a captain's bed that not only looks great but has loads of storage.

before

after

she built a platform for her bed and then cleverly used a lack shelving unit on casters to give the illusion of a built-in. pull out the lack shelf to access additional storage.

see instructions on killorn's captain's bed.

ikea shower curtain dress

melissa is back at the sewing machine. she gained a bit of fame here with her pillowcase skirt (one of the top 10 hacks for 2006) and now she sashays in with a dress made from tanja shower curtain fabric (can't find the link on ikea website).

"the tanja shower curtain stayed in my fabric stash ever since, just waiting for the perfect project, which presented itself in the form of this Burda WOF 60s dress from the may 2007 issue. it turned out to be the perfect fabric for this dress!"

see more of melissa's ikea shower curtain dress.

bonde sideboard

michael turned a book case on its side and hey, you've got a sideboard.

"we were looking to finish off our living room set with the bonde sideboard, but at almost $400 we figured out a creative alternative. we bought this used bonde book case online with glass door for only $90, turned it on its side and attached some legs from an old ikea coffee table we were anxious to get rid of and voila! we also to plan on putting some small spotlights inside."

crafty trash bag holder

tons of yarn. plenty of eager crocheters and knitters. how do you keep them from becoming a tangled mess?

adora tipped me on this great use of the rationell plastic bag dispenser at maker faire [via such sweet hands]. just stuff the containers with yarn with the center pull tails snaking through the holes for eager needles.

further down the post, there is also a suggestion to close the open end and trap a cat toy inside to provide bored cats a challenge. what fun a trash bag holder can be.

hol computer case

update! (13/2/08) link to daniel's page updated.

***

the ikea hol storage cube is turning out to be a firm favourite when it comes to building computers into furniture. here's one from daniel.

more pictures of daniel's hol computer.

other hol hacks:
> barbex's smart tv recorder
> hide a sub woofer in this hol

got one too? show us your version.
> andi's

> patrik's

lee's ikea basement studio hacks

lee sent me photos of his basement studio and i thought i went to ikea hacker heaven.

the table is a severed drafting table top with what i think are vika curry legs.

the beauty on the left is an alex drawer unit, originally with casters but lee matched it perfectly to an herman miller aluminum group base he cut down. the one of the right is an ikea bas shadow box finished in black stain with a sheet of eames office stationary as backdrop.

and the skinny hairpin legs look gorgeous on the ikea attityd (can't find it on ikea website).

lastly, the ikea ps cart with a the larger top shelf to accommodate the monitor and speakers. and please note the speakers! from the front, you'll probably not notice that they are made from ikea planters! (discontinued, i think)

you must hop over to lee's site for details of his ikea basement studio hacks, while i wipe the drool off my face.

a floating charging station

a charging station that lifts all the wires and cables off the floor and displays all your gadgets at the same time. a neat idea!

hans of sweden needed a new place for his phone and all sorts of rechargeable stuff. the old solution gathered a lot of dust, was low and took up a lot of floor-estate in his hallway.

the old solution

"after going thru most parts of the ikea catalogue i finaly found a solution. it's a billy cd-shelf insert for its bookcases, it's a discontinued product but i managed to get one. since it's meant to be inserted into a bookshelf all edges are raw so i painted them in the same color as the wall.


i also drilled out some bricks out of a piece of wood so that i could get a space between the shelf and the wall - very useful for hiding cables, the bricks are also painted in the same color as the wall. i'm very pleased with the result. i might even add lights to the back of it to really make it hover."

replacing a built-in wardrobe's sliding doors

bruce's wardrobe needed new sliding doors and the pax stordal made a great fit. love the birch finish.

"my wife and i love the malm furniture in our bedroom and needed to find replacement doors for our closet that would complement the furniture. i came across the pax stordal sliding door frames in the as-is department at ikea for $50.00 and bought six 1/8� baltic birch plywood panels for $2.99 each.

i cut the metal frame of the doors down to fit in the existing closet opening in our bedroom and then cut the plywood panels to fit the frame and applied three coats of polyurethane. i used the pax stordal hardware for the top and the existing sliding door hardware i had for the bottom. the side trim for the pax stordal doors was cut and used as a top trim piece on the finished project. the total cost of this hack was under $90.00 for great looking doors."

inspiration: statist tree towel rack

more eye candy. this is eric's bathroom after a gorgeous paint over. and the ikea statist trees as a towel holder completes the look.

see more of eric's diy bathroom wall painting.

sheer window curtain sun control

ikea's sheer window curtains look great but do little to block out the summer sun. here how you can cut out the glare, a tip sent in by stacy.

"i needed something to control light and glare, and that would be less 'officey' than the existing mini-blinds. i bought a pair of inexpensive wilma curtains, but they were a little bright for my taste. i toned them down by adding a second layer of fabric (a sheer tablecloth, cut in half), attached to the top of the curtain with a small cross-stitch beneath each tab."

calling for hackers in the NY area

you hack ikea?
you live in new york?

then, you could get you and your ikea hacks in the new york times. woohoo!

penelope green of the new york times' home and garden is doing a story on ikea hacking and wants to feature a few of us hackers in the flesh.

if you're interested, please drop me a line at ikeahacker [at] gmail [dot] com with your contact information as well as hacks you've done. it doesn't matter whether your hacks have or have not been featured on this site.

thanks!

make your own ikea video game furniture

i'm not much of a gamer but i like how one can build video game thingies into ikea furniture. like this computer mounted lack coffee table and ikea video game chair.

yos made this about 4 1/2 years ago before all the media transfer networking devices. his purpose was to stream music from his main computer to the home theater in his living room. he also installed old games on it so he could play old video games on the big screen.

yos writes: "back in 2001, during one of my weekly ikea trips, i grabbed another lack table and decided that i wanted to build a computer into an end table so that i could stream all my music into the living room. this was way before most of the easy digital music media centers. i cut a hole through the lack table only to understand why they are so light! i had to reinforce the inside of the lack table in order to mount the plexiglas box that i chose for my computer (small form-factor).

i painted some cut 2x4's and mounted them inside the lack table and then mounted the plexiglas computer inside. the computer had a second purpose - to play old school video games that did not run on my new computer. :) the computer was outfitted with a sound activated cold cathode neon blue light that pulsed the table to the music. this was finished up with a custom piece of beveled glass (not shown in the pictures). what a hit at parties!

click to view computer end table flickr photoset

when the easy media centers came about a couple years later (2003), i decided to migrate all the "guts" of the lack table plexiglas computer into this ikea video game chair (can't place the name and i can't find this anymore on ikea's site).

this was not only easier to gain access to the computer components, it was functional too. the chair maintains stability so you could pull it out and sit on it while playing old school computer games. this computer chair was also outfitted with a cold cathode neon light (red) so that this was also a hit at parties!

click to view video game chair flickr set.

both computers have been retired as computers, but still function as interesting art pieces at my new home."

rattan shelving

cherrie from netherlands sent in this lovely rattan shelving salvaged from a degernes rattan bed storage box.

"my husband and i once lived in a flat so small we HAD to have a sofa bed if we wanted a double bed at all. along with a beddinge sofa bed we bought along the degernes rattan bed storage box. when things improved, we moved to a decent sized flat where we could put a proper bed in the bedroom.

we had no use for the trundle box anymore, but i love the rattan on metal frames it�s made of. i reckoned they�re sturdy enough to support lightweight decoration items on, so i went back to ikea, picked up a couple of hall wall brackets, and mounted the rattan planks on top.

one of these shelves is now in our daughter�s nursery (pix above). it looks just perfect in the room. for additional safety, i inserted metal pegs (ones usually used as plank support in cupboards � sorry, i have no idea what those are properly called) into the screw holes, which fixed the plank to the brackets so you don�t accidentally pull the whole plank if you pull something on it.

i love it! it�s quite a bargain too, considering the box costs $40, and you get 4 planks in two different lengths to work with."

radiator cover up

nice idea to cover up unsightly radiators. edward's cover is made from a discarded hol storage cube and a lack wall shelf.