high kitchen countertop with storage drawers

one kitchen size does not fit all. here's how carsten added almost 8 inches of height to his kitchen base unit.

"as i am really tall, i always wanted a kitchen with a high countertop. these are insanely expensive, so we used a standard ikea faktum (similar to akurum) kitchen with white arlig doors an placed these little wooden drawers (we don't remember the name, but they are quite similar to the mackis drawers), that were painted to match, on top of them.

then we topped the whole thing off with a dark brown countertop that is fastened to the wall. the bigger brown square in the middle is one of the boxes turned sideways to match the overall length of the kitchen. the result is a countertop height of 108cm instead of the standard 89."

start your day with coffee in bed

at the rate i am failing at trying to wake up early, i should be making sven's bedside table with coffee maker hack. a piping hot cup of coffee ready the moment my alarm clock rings. waking up to the smell of coffee ... heaven!

sven says, "the starting point was that my girlfriend wants a coffee in the morning to wake up. and i do not feel like getting up every morning before her to make this coffee. this hack is based on the benjamin stool from ikea, the electro-boy timer and a coffeemaker, so she can now decide at what time the coffee is ready in the morning.

the coffeemaker was partly changed and integrated into the benjamin. then it was directly branched to the electro-boy timer. in the timer is still another socket left in the timer to plug in a light or radio. now you can programme the timer, load the coffeemaker and you will have coffee and light/music to wake up in the morning. another important thing is that i put an additional switch that makes the coffeemaker work only with a cup in it. that avoids flooding your sleeping room accidentally.

in the pictures you see the coffee-making version and the "light" version on the other side of the bed."

peter reborn as a floor lamp

another vintage hack from a discontinued product, the peter shelving. alex turned it into a sleek floor lamp as a birthday gift.

"this is an old (1995) hack and the shelf 'peter' (first pix below) is discontinued for a few years now.

anyway, i shortened the 'ladder' (the side unit) and got rid of all runs but the lowest two. The head of the lamp consists of aluminum spare parts and a halogen lamp. The base is a slab of granite."

see more of alex's peter floor lamp.

Heartbroken over Goteborg

finally, some thing different! a poem for a sofa.

"I remember fondly a spring day,
seven years ago this May.
That�s when my new Goteborg came home to play.
It was my second apartment, all on my own
Into a two bedroom I had grown.
I skipped through Ikea, glisten in my eye.
To my Goteborg I would fly.
He was so handsome and proud, a crisp green
surely he wouldn�t be hard to keep clean.
Finally he was home completing my set
so sadly I would regret.
The stains of time, so set in and true�
The fades of the sun have hit him too.
Why not throw the cover in the wash you say?
I did, to my dismay...
I ended up with shreds of threads
Looking like hay.
Please bring back my Goteborg today�
Tears and rips, alas what shall I do?
Bemz shall help renew,
The love of my Goteborg has remained true.
He has been my warmth on a rainy day�
and my perch to watch the birdies play.
He has sat with my friends when a movie would fright�
Been a shelter on a cold night.
O� how I long for him to stay�
but dire straits put me in a pinch.
The money I can�t stretch another inch.
No cover, no money the outcome is up to you�.



Vote yes to save my Gotie from the trash. Please!!!!" - Sarah



want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

make it smell good again

a minor fire makes a stinky sofa. give lisa a sweet smelling new slipcover.

"I think our sofa deserves a second chance not only because it's starting to look really saggy but the fact that it stinks!

We had a minor fire two weeks ago in a flower pot in the living room and the smoke just won't come out not matter that we've washed the covers. The couch itself we still love so why buy a new one? Don�t you agree?" - Lisa





want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

pierre and christine's "love again" couch

a story of second chances - for love and for sofas.

"We are two ikea-fans living in rainy Vancouver, BC. Our Nikkala was purchased upwards of 10 years ago, when Pierre was living in Paris. He purchased it with his then-girlfriend, with whom he was just moving in with. Orange is Pierre's favourite colour, and he is a huge movie buff - as other Nikkala owners have attested, the couch is perfect for lounging and watching a movie. The couch's moderate size also made it perfect for lugging up and down flights of stairs, as the majority of apartments in Paris don't have elevators and are often five or six flights up. Besides a couple of moves, the couch's destruction began with the claws of Pierre's girlfriend's cat, Tsunami, laying the ground work for years of further destruction.


Pierre and his girlfriend got married a few years later and moved to San Francisco together, shipping the Nikkala with them � six months spent on a container ship to get to the US before they finally got their furniture delivered. The couch saw them both adjust to a new country, learn a new language, and come to love the city of steep hills and 4 'o clock fog. But after a few years disaster struck � Pierre lost his job (and consequently the right to stay in the country) at the same time as his marriage was dissolving. When his then ex-wife moved back to France, he packed up his stuff and took a job opportunity in Vancouver, looking for a fresh start. The Nikkala got packed into a truck once again and made another cross-country journey.

That was four years ago, and Pierre and I met shortly afterward. We spent many evenings on that couch as we got to know each other and eventually fell in love. Two and a half years ago we moved in together and the Nikkala had a feline friend once again. Our cat Lola has sped up the demise of the current slipcover, bringing it to it's current state.

Once a vibrant orange, our faded-peach friend is still incredibly comfy and the frame and cushions are in great shape. We've also since trained our cat to not destroy the couch in the future by purchasing her a proper scratching post and putting double-sided tape on the couch to break her habits. We would love to give this couch a second chance just as Pierre had his chance a few years ago. We've chosen a nice graphite grey to contrast our bright colours in the carpet and the cushions, and we think this will be stain and wear resistant � not to mention really classy.

We hope we can give our Nikkala a chance for love again! Thanks!" - Christine & Pierre



want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

uglydolls demonstrate against ugly sofa

uglydolls look better than ann's sofa. give her a pretty new one?

"My name is Ann and I live in Sweden. My living room would look a lot better with a fresh Bemz slipcover for my Karlanda sofa...

I tried to dye the cover myself but it ended up a disaster. After having dyed the cover I found out that it wasn't made of 100% cotton. Instead it is partly linen and needed dry cleaning!

So after washing and dyeing it at home in the washing machine, it had shrunk! I had to work for hours to get the cover back on the sofa! There's no way I can dye it again to make the color look better because then I will never get it back on!

Me and my daughter feel ashamed when people visit. Usually we try to hide the entire sofa with blankets but of course it never looks good.

Our sofa is so ugly that not even our (very cute) Uglydolls will spend any time on it (except for when they are demonstrating against ugly covers)!

This is the Bemz slipcover that I (+ my daughter + the Uglydolls) would love to win: Sybary- Midnight Grey.





want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

a new slipcover for silke?

the last of the cat entries, for now. phew!
(if you're thinking of sending in an entry, no more pet stories, please!)

"Unfortunately for my Tomelilla armchair my two cats love it as much as I do. I love it for its comfort and it's simply the best spot to read. My two furry roommates adore the chair...
...because as cat you can sleep on it, munch you treats on it, watch the birds and since the zipper doesn't work anymore, creep underneath the cover and hide when there's a rain storm.

Since they both share this view, my chair has seen a lot of cat-jealousy during the years... for the best spot is always the one already taken." - silke





want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

harald pimps ikea for his mac mini

the mac mini. it's way too cute to be hidden. so harald pimps a stand for apple's smallest desktop computer.

"after experimenting with three trunna lights (can't find the link on ikea's website) from ikea germany (regensburg), i made these two light mods for my mac mini.

i just cut the cables and soldered new connections. then i glued the acrylic in symmetric positions on thinner acrylic plates. for the console i used milky polycarbonate from the hobby-store, cut it round and attached it top and bottom.

unfortunately i sold the mini a year ago and the trunna lights at ikea are now round."

see more of harald's mini mac console at www.pimpmymini.com.

gaelle's grey sofa to go red

gaelle's stromstad wants to slip into something red.

"As you can see on the pix, our Stromstad sofa is very tired. It came into our life in 1999, and it has been our best friend till today. It is also our Pomme cat's best friend, so its original grey slipcover needs to be changed as you can see on the other pix.

We moved in to a new home (a house in a mountain), and a little baby girl was born in February, we'll love to have a little more color in our new living-room. So we hope to win this red slipcover to replace our grey one.

Our cat, Pomme des Muses, a lovely Siamese, can go out to play with mice, so that our Stromstad can have a little rest now. It deserves a second chance for its second life."



want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

a new klippan slipcover on the menu?

cooking accidents on the klippan. how in the world did that happen? but it did with thomas.

"My Klippan 2-seater is still in a good condition, but the surface is simply *#f*?�. The spots come from cooking experiments gone wrong, little puppy dogs feeling too well ;) and the effects of age.



I would like a nice dark and elegant cover so I can give my guests a nice and comfy place to sit and talk. Woven whimsy graphite gray



or Sybary midnight grey." - Thomas



want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

lavanya's sofa that nobody wants to sit on

lavanya's sofa is a huge turn off for her friends. a new one could perk up her social life again.

"My reasons why my Lillberg sofa needs a new bemz slipcover:

1. I thought my Lillberg sofa would add a touch of sophistication to my studio apartment, get rid of my seating woes (it is a 3-seater, can seat 4 or more depending on proportions). It did, but the faded (after wash) patchy stains/scratches on the cover invite "how-disgusting" stares now.


2. Friends keep staring at the stains, plop themselves on the floor - my sofa is the last option for a decent seating. Some dog-nail art can be seen on the cover.
3. Black definitely adds to my overall gloomy situation- I need color! Or at least a print. :)


HELP!" - Lavanya



want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.

ikea hack on YouTube

thought we'll take a video break from the contest entries. alessa sent me a link to a funny video from antirelusionist based on this laptop desk hack. nice to see ikea hacks getting some tube-time!



enjoy!

can't afford a wedding centerpiece? hack one from ikea

this is some thing new - an ikea wedding centerpiece. kim used tall and short glasses, candles and lots of plumeria to make her own centerpiece. and it costs only $25 per centerpiece.

kim says, "i thought i would submit my ikea wedding hack: using regular drinking glasses as candle centerpieces.

all you need for an ikea wedding centerpiece

sure, it's not anything super fancy... but it's a perfect example of using ikea as your craft store and not using everything for its original and intended purpose!"

see more of kim's wedding centerpiece.

maureen's sad sofa story

will be posting up quite a few contest entries today and tomorrow as the contest closing date (oct 5) is fast approaching. do bear with me (and the cats!). i seriously never knew that our feline friends were the no. 1 destroyer of sofa slipcovers. anyways, i have one sad tale, 2 cat stories and one short entry for today. vote on! - jules

______________

maureen has gone through a fair bit with her yellowed ekeskog. your vote could help put a sweet end to this unfortunate chapter.

"My name is Maureen and I own an IKEA Ekeskog Sofa that my husband and I purchased in 2004 in the color 'Mannarp Dark Blue' a year after moving in together. I was very pleased to have finally found the sofa of my dreams and style, after a year of living with nothing but a ratty hand me down. Unfortunately for me little did I know that a year later I would be so unhappy with my color choice. After owning this couch for a year I watched in horror as it slowly started turning a yellowish hue, anywhere an arm was placed the couch began to get a yellow hue to it! I sent numerous e-mails to IKEA asking what to do and none were ever replied to. :(

And now I will rewind a little, shortly after purchasing my dream couch I became horribly ill on and off for a few months and then after a visit back home I was in the Hospital 3 days later having my appendix removed. I felt such horrible pain after the surgery because they put too much gas in my stomach for the Laparoscopic Surgery, I was scared and confused and it was not helping that I could not yet communicate with the doctors because I speak a different language. I left this hospital shortly after only to end up in another one where I learned that they put a little too much gas in to my belly for the surgery.

When I was sent back home from the hospital in 'good health' I had often a lot of pain and could barely move around some days, it took a year of convincing doctors that something was still wrong with me and that what I suspected as me having developed scar tissue from the surgery was actually true.

These are the main reasons why I was only ever to e-mail IKEA and not go there in person. One day when I was not feeling so much pain I went to IKEA in person to ask about my slipcover and why this was happening and I was told to bring in the receipt and cover with me the next time I went there. Sadly because I was still in so much pain the next time was not for awhile longer.

When I had finally had my scar tissue removed and I was on my way to recovery I went to IKEA with my receipt and slipcover to ask for a refund, only to be told that I should have complained sooner and that what was happening to the slipcover was 'perfectly normal?' When we had explained that we e-mailed several times over the course of a year, we were told something funny and that was "Well, we read all e-mails sent to us!" Yes we were only told this and not that they actually reply to them. We were then told that we could return the cover for only 150 Euros worth of credit. At this time, a new cover would have cost 300 Euro more, we were also told we would have to wait over 4 weeks for the new cover in the color we wanted to be in stock. We decided to just say the heck with it in the end and leave after talking to an 'IKEA Master' in the couch area. I have never been so disappointed with IKEA's customer service or lack thereof as I was that day. To make matters worse my husband's wallet was also stolen while we waited to speak with customer service on the issue with our couch cover.

It is now 3 years later and my couch is a very horrid yellow in certain spots and faded blue in others. Not exactly the couch of my dreams. :(

If I win I would love to have a new slipcover from bemz in Chocolate Brown, it would go nicely with our newly redone wood floors.
Please help my dream come true again!" - Maureen



want to win $500 to spend at bemz? here's how to send in your entry.
click here to view all entries.